Now, quite what went on in those intervening two kilometres we may never know. As the cameras cut away, Julian Alaphilippe was just ahead of Gianni Moscon, with Vasil Kiryenka attempting to bridge the 20-second gap from the peloton.

Eventually, when a rider did round the bend, it was not Alaphilippe in the lead, but Kiryenka – with a chasing peloton hot on his heels. A peloton that did in fact contain Peter Sagan.

Suspicious? Sure. It seems pretty clear to us that this 2km break in the footage was orchestrated to allow Sagan to jump back into the fray after taking the afternoon off.

Rolling out the red carpet

For our money, the men’s individual time trial in Bergen served up more drama, intrigue and goats (more on that later) than all of the cumulative TT miles covered in the past two seasons.

A big reason for this was the introduction of a bloody great hill right at the end of the course, prompting some (but not all) of the riders to change bikes. Those who did choose to change their steeds had to do so on a specially designated bit of red carpet, laid out neatly over the cobbles of Bergen.

The resulting panicky switchovers provided us with a fantastic look at a phenomenon we like to call; People Who Are Very Good At One Thing Doing Something At Which They Are A Bit Rubbish. In this case, excellent bike riders waddling ‘on land’ in their cleated shoes and totally fudging their attempts to smoothly get onto a waiting road bike.

Here’s Alexey Lutsenko really living that philosophy as he singularly fails to begin riding the bike he has just changed onto, ostensibly with the intention of going faster.

Lutsenko likely to score low for artistic merit #Bergen2017 pic.twitter.com/nze5VqqYrJ

— the Inner Ring (@inrng) September 20, 2017

…Lutsenk-oh no!

With the bike change seen as a pivotal moment, some riders, including Victor Campenaerts, who you may remember as the same scamp who proposed to a girl during the Giro ITT, even went so far as to practice making the bike switch.

Bike change practice @VCampenaerts #Bergen2017 pic.twitter.com/dusrbqIe2p

— Belgian Cycling Team (@BELCyclingTeam) September 19, 2017

And, while the bike change dynamic certainly added to the spectacle of the race, pundits were split over whether or not it should have been allowed.

I like the bike change.

— Ned Boulting (@nedboulting) September 20, 2017

Anyone swapping bikes in a transition zone should also be forced to ride in Speedos. That’ll learn ’em #Bergen2017

— ian cleverly (@iancleverly) September 20, 2017

I swear, they should make bike changes obligatory in every TT. Even flat ones. You just change from one TT bike to another.

— tom owen (@owentcharles) September 20, 2017

Indestructible Dolan

At the beginning of the week, British junior rider, Lauren Dolan, grabbed the headlines when she finished her ITT effort despite suffering some truly horrible injuries in a crash.

Dolan came home over two minutes down on the winning time, but the way her leg was looking, it’s frankly remarkable she finished at all. Indeed, Dolan had to spend her eighteenth birthday in hospital due to her injuries in Bergen.

So only just saw this but Lauren Dolan did incredibly well to finish only 2’24 down today after her crash. These girls are tough! pic.twitter.com/5uoZLrm6MQ

— Jamie Haughey (@JamieHaughey) September 18, 2017

Which prompted us to wonder, if a crash like that can’t stop her, what would stop Lauren Dolan? One of those nukes Kim-Jong Un has been cooking up? How about the power of Greyskull wielded by He-Man? Could the Incredible Hulk prevent the Indestructible Dolan from finishing a race? Possibly all the Jedis from Star Wars + one of the Transformers could do it, but they’d definitely know they’d been in a fight.

We say, chapeau, lass.

 

New Pid on the block

Worlds week also saw another chapter written in the remarkable story of Tom Pidcock. The British junior rider grabbed a set of rainbow bands for his barnstorming performance in the junior individual time trial and adds a second rainbow jersey to the one he already has for winning the junior cyclocross worlds earlier this year.

This is to say nothing of his national and European ‘cross titles and national criterium title, and let’s not forget his Junior Paris-Roubaix win. At the rate young Tom is going, we’re half expecting to see him come on as a sub to score the winning goal for England U21s in their match next week.