Video - Pro rider slides across line after crash during victory celebration

A photofinish picture like no other - Liam Slock of Lotto Intermarché was celebrating a solo win when he crashed a slid across the line

Liam Slock's Lotto Intermarché team may have been furious with him for giving up his first win due to a self-inflicted crash, but when he still claimed the victory in Switzerland the team saw the funny side.

Slock was leading solo in the closing stages of GP Gippingen (1.1), with the chasers just a few seconds back, when he sat up to enjoy a victory celebration.

However, he very nearly threw away what his first pro victory when he took his hands of the bars and back again a couple of times, and also looked back, causing himself to crash.

“Luckily the win came with it, otherwise this would probably have been the fail of the year,” Slock laughed afterwards. “There was an incredibly strong wind.

"And I briefly underestimated it. I realised quite early that I was going to win and started celebrating early because I really wanted to enjoy the moment. I raised my arms in the air and then a gust of wind caught my handlebars…”

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Luckily he was right on the line, meaning he slid across it when he fell. And though his bike did not all cross the line before Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) sprinted in for 2nd and 3rd, he was still awarded the win.

However, Slock went really close to messing it up as Vlasov was 2nd on the same time as him and Carapaz was 3rd at just one second, with a chasing group only three seconds back.

The only Irish rider in the race, Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost) was 71st at 10:13, having worked for Carapaz.

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