After waiting almost two hours in the hot seat for last man Chris Froome (Sky) to better his time, Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) would have been forgiven for wanting to take his leave as soon as the curtain came down on the Tour de France's stage 18 time trial in Megève.
A Dutch television station required his presence for its post-stage analysis show, however, and then after talking his way through his 21-second defeat to Froome in his native language there, Dumoulin assented to doing it all over again in English for the Eurosport cameras almost immediately afterwards.
Sky manager Dave Brailsford was already being interviewed on the show, and Dumoulin could only smile when the Welshman metaphorically ruffled his hair by praising him and the Giant-Alpecin team for "really pushing forward and challenging us."
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Dumoulin, a double stage winner on this Tour already and the favourite for Olympic time trial gold in Rio next month, had planned on doing rather more than simply challenging Froome in the 17-kilometre test, and he duly posted the quickest time after 10 kilometres, 10 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey. Froome managed a 31-second turnaround over the remainder of the course, however, and there was little to be done.
"Overall it's disappointing. I wanted to win, I was hoping for the win, especially when I saw his first check point because he was slower than me," Dumoulin told a group of reporters later. "I was hoping for it, but it was not in my favour today. It was a good TT, but not my very best, and so you don't win at this level on a course like this."
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