One second. I read the standings twice, on the tablet propped against the floor pump in the garage, between the second and the third bike. Sandrine Tas leads the Eneco Tour by one second over Lieke Nooijen, and by three over Charlotte Kool. One second, at my place, is the time it takes to unclip the phone from the handlebars and look at the computer.
The facts first. On Tuesday, in The Hague, Nooijen won the 3.1 km prologue and Tas took fourth. On Wednesday, over Ede-Ede, 79.5 km, Tas won the sprint ahead of Kool and Barbara Guarischi. A two-rider break, Fariba Hashimi and Talia Appleton, lasted until the final straight. The final straight. Me, when I get caught, it is usually at the first roundabout.
And then there is the detail I love: Sandrine Tas, 31, used to be a long-track speed skater. She takes her third UCI win in her first season at Lotto-Intermarché. I have never skated. I once crossed the square in Lasne in February on black ice, with the backpack, and I consider that a basis for discussion.
I am not saying I win the sprint in Ede. I am saying I have the second. My ride on Sunday left at twenty past nine, the meeting time said 9.19. Take away the second and what is left is a twenty-past-nine man, and a Belgian leading a Dutch race.
You rarely win a second at the front. You often lose it at the back, climbing up to the team car.
At the café we worked it out on a napkin: 79.5 kilometres is roughly our Sunday ride, minus the Brussels-Namur on the way home. We talked till noon over whether skating helps with accelerations. Nobody had ever skated. We ordered a second coffee.
It’s true, we checked: Sporza.
