Cyclist celebrates stage win a lap early, goes on to finish 148th
Giro d'italia Slovenian cyclist Luka Pibernik celebrates what he thought was a win on stage five of the Giro d'Italia, but there was still one lap to go.
Luka Pibernik will not look back on stage five of the Giro d'Italia cycle race with much fondness.
The Slovenian cyclist thought he had sprinted to a memorable win for his Bahrain-Merida team on the 159-kilometre stage five from Pedara to Messina on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time), raising both arms in the air in celebration as he crossed the finish line.
The unfortunate thing for the 23-year-old was there was a bloke nearby ringing a bell to indicate there was still another 6.2km lap to go around Messina before the stage finished.
LAPRESSE Quick-Step rider Bob Jungels rides in the pink jersey as leader of the Giro d'Italia.
Pibernik had to fall back to the pack, presumably rather embarrassed, and ended up finishing 20 seconds adrift from the peloton in 148th.
Colombia's Fernando Gaviria won the actual sprint finish a lap later, while his Quick-Step teammate Bob Jungels remained in the overall lead.
TeaDrinkingRedditor on May 18th, 2017 at 12:45 UTC »
Thing is with road cycling, they ususally try to reserve some energy for the final stretch then sprint to the finish line. He probably could have continued going and got a respectable finish if he hadn't done so, but wouldn't have had the energy to race as well as he could.
babsbaby on May 18th, 2017 at 12:10 UTC »
/r/Prematurecelebration
Dindrtahl on May 18th, 2017 at 11:19 UTC »
Happens a lot more often than you might think.
Often, they celebrate in the final meters before crossing the finish line and someone passes them.