Hitting halfway in 59:51, the fastest ever official half-marathon split, Kipchoge was clearly intent on breaking the two-hour barrier for real this time, without the illegal chain of Nike pacemakers and Ineos-branded cheerleading of his effort in Vienna. The now 37-yea-rold Kenyan was chasing two marks here, the official world record of 2:01.39 he ran in Berlin in 2018, and the unofficial 1:59.40 he ran in a publicity stunt event in Vienna in October 2019. I’ve been wondering a lot about Kipchoge this week ever since he started last Sunday’s Berlin Marathon and promptly put himself well inside his own world record pace. Still, like so much else going on around elite professional sport these days, there is a part of you that believes and another part that wonders.
The Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) investigation found nothing, and nothing about Remco’s career to date suggests it’s anything other than real and clean.
He sustained a fractured pelvis and a right lung contusion, the same incident where his Quick-Step team director Davide Bramati was seen removing a suspicious white item from Remco’s jersey pocket as he lay on the ground. Remco spent much of last season rebuilding after a horrific crash in the Tour of Lombardy in August 2020, hitting an unprotected bridge on the descent off Muro di Surmano and ending up in a ravine 30m below. Aged 22, Remco is still a relative novice among the hardy men of road cycling, having spent his teenage years playing football at Anderlecht and Eindhoven, before switching to the bike in 2017.Īchievements such as this, at such a tender age, may or may not be too real for you. He reached the finish without another rider in sight, two minutes and 21 seconds ahead, complete with various celebratory gestures signalling his own disbelief, perhaps others too. Remco Evenepoel from Belgium and Kazakhstan’s Alexey Lutsenko attacked off the front of the lead group, and a short while later, on the penultimate ascent of the Mount Pleasant climb, Remco – as he’s better known – attacked again, this time riding away solo. So rather than sit through the entire 226km things were eventually fast-forwarded to the last 30km, when the real racing begins. You don’t need negativity like that in your life.Īctually the bike race was recorded overnight from Wollongong, south of Sydney, the venue for the 2022 World Championships. Some people look at you strangely when you get up at dawn to watch a 266km bike race followed by Eliud Kipchoge effectively time-trialling a full marathon, but don’t look back.
Long before the rowing started in Recice last Sunday there was coffee to be made and bananas to be munched.
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