You know, over the course of the end of last year and the beginning of this year, I’d gotten almost dangerously accustomed to the American cyclist Neilson Powless being highly competitive well into the pointy end of some of the biggest races in the world, from taking a solo victory at the Japan Cup Road Race, to another solo victory at the GP La Marseillaise, to a GC squeaker at the Etoile de Besseges, to a podium at Dwars door Vlaanderen and top tens at Milano-San Remo, de Ronde van Vlaanderen, and on GC at Paris-Nice. Having watched him cut his teeth on WT racing by repeatedly launching suicidal attacks that never went anywhere and then cracking and going all the way backwards, it felt suspicious and too good to be true.

Then he went on paternity leave after Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and is now making his return to racing at the Tour de Suisse. And today, he went in the breakaway in the big mountains, made the final selection, and proceeded to attack repeatedly, failing to make a difference, until he eventually cracked and lost the wheel, entirely of his own doing. And now everything feels right once again. Even my low-level chronic anxiety seems eased today.