Peter Sagan is in his rainbow jersey again and all is right with the World Championships? Not by a long shot, but after a week where the indelible images were of young men and women stricken by the effects of racing in extreme heat, or of a finishing circuit eerily bereft of spectators, the UCI will feel they caught a break when the cycling's most marketable athlete won its showpiece event in Doha.
A reporter summarised the situation neatly with the first question in Sagan's press conference as a two-time world champion. "There was a week full of discussion. Now you win and everybody's happy. Explain that," he said.
"Everybody's happy again, yeah?" Sagan said, milking the moment for humour in the manner of Usain Bolt, his equivalent in the world of athletics. "I'm very happy too."
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Winner of Gent-Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders, three stages of the Tour de France, the green jersey, the European Championships and now another world title, there can be no doubt but that Sagan has shaken off the fear of events that so plagued him during his final season at Cannondale and much of his debut campaign with Tinkoff.
During his string of near misses on the big stage between 2013 and 2015, it often seemed as though the Slovakian suffered from a surfeit of options, almost always reaching for the wrong one at the pivotal moment. Since the Worlds in Richmond a year ago, he has seemed incapable of making any wrong decisions.
Only 26 riders were still in contention by the time the race hit the finishing circuit on Doha's Pearl, but with fast men such as Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) and Alexander Kristoff (Norway) among their number, one might have expected Sagan to look to shake them loose in the final laps.
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