The news that derails a little

Ganna led by four seconds in Glasgow, Myriam only notes the twelve at the line

Klaas Lodewyck has looked back, in Sporza, on Remco Evenepoel’s three world time trial titles. In Glasgow, in 2023, Filippo Ganna led by four seconds at the first intermediate check; Evenepoel won by twelve seconds, the first Belgian world champion in the discipline.

Myriam at a timing table ticks the finish column on a board showing the numbers 4 and 12.

Observation. First intermediate check: four seconds for Ganna. Finish line: twelve seconds for Evenepoel. Between the two, there is no column.

That year the road race was held, exceptionally, before the time trial. Evenepoel finished 25th in it and lost his rainbow jersey there. The order of the programme is a fact, not a circumstance.

In the same interview, without naming the edition, Lodewyck describes a gesture. “Fairly quickly I had the feeling that Remco was having a big day. One small gesture confirmed that feeling. At one point I told him he would be a bit more sheltered on the left-hand side of the road. Remco then made a sign: easy, I have everything under control. With him, when he does that, you know it is fine,” he told Sporza.

First. The intermediate check opens no column, it informs. Second. The line opens one, and it reads twelve seconds. Third. A hand signal addressed to a team car is not provided for, is not forbidden, and is therefore not notifiable. I also note that a memory without a date is classified nowhere. Compliant. What I do not note is that I looked at the intermediate time twice myself. It is not in the folder.

Myriam · the commissaire, fictional character

For the rest, the report runs to three lines: started, classified, first. The sports director’s feeling is not a document in the file, it is an interview.

At 26, Evenepoel can add a fourth consecutive world time trial title.

It’s true, we checked: Sporza.

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Our columnists’ reactions are fictional; the facts and real quotes are sourced above.