One of the more, ahem, unique features of professional cycling is its propensity for would-be winners to sabotage themselves and throw away certain victory with an excruciating implosion mere centimetres from the finish line.
In fact, for a sport so fixated on tiny details, the sight of an overexuberant rider throwing their arms in the air only to be pipped by a rival at the death, or even crashing across the finish line when their celebration goes awry, is an embarrassingly common one. Just ask Julian Alaphilippe.
For a brief moment at the GP Gippingen in Switzerland on Sunday, it looked like Liam Slock was set to join the infamous ranks of those who have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
The 25-year-old Belgian, who until yesterday had yet to taste success three-and-a-half years into his pro career, looked set to end that duck when he accelerated clear of big hitters Aleksandr Vlasov and Richard Carapaz in the final 200m of the lumpy one-day race, a traditional tune-up event for the upcoming Tour de Suisse.
How to secure your first pro victory in style 😎
Congrats @liam_slock 🏆 pic.twitter.com/UkrwL4ekcL
— Lotto-Intermarché (@LottoIntermarch) June 14, 2026
As Slock looked set to secure a comfortable win, he eased up as he approached the finish line, raising his hands to his head, soaking in the occasion. Then disaster struck.
Just inches from the line, as he briefly glanced back, the Lotto Intermarché rider lost control of his bike – he would later pin the blame on a sudden gust of wind – and clattered unceremoniously to the ground. Vlasov swerved around him and, for a moment, it appeared that Slock had been denied his first pro win.
However, as the brilliantly chaotic images captured by the photo finish camera showed, Slock slid across the line on his back just before Vlasov made it past. And, according to the UCI’s rules, as long as you cross the line with your bike (regardless of whether you’re riding, carrying, or crashing it), the victory is yours.
The perfect celebration doesn’t exi— wait for Liam Slock 🏄♂️ pic.twitter.com/ZHQb7PYFj2
— Lotto-Intermarché (@LottoIntermarch) June 14, 2026
With that maiden win confirmed – and the images of his bizarre method of celebration making their way around the world – Slock was at least able to see the funny side of it all yesterday evening.
“Luckily the win came with it, otherwise this would probably have been the fail of the year,” he said, in a statement released last night by his Lotto Intermarché team, who were keen to stress that Slock’s viral moment shouldn’t take anything away from his brilliant win over top-tier opposition.
“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…”
Slock’s slapstick moment has appeared to capture the imagination of the internet, with his own team even mining his soon-to-be iconic ‘celebration’ for some top-quality social media content (though Lotto did note: “thankfully we won, or those memes would sound so different”).
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Reflecting on the 176km that preceded his heart-in-mouth moment at the finish (and the memes that followed), the 25-year-old continued: “The race had actually been going really well all day. We were always where we needed to be every lap. At one point a large group got away and I was able to follow comfortably.
“When Aleksandr Vlasov and Richard Carapaz attacked in the finale, I decided to bridge across. That took a lot of energy because those guys are among the very best. But once I made it across, I tried to save as much energy as possible. I thought that if I managed to do that, I might be able to win.
> Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory — when cycling celebrations go wrong
“I still had plenty left in the tank, so I knew fairly quickly that I was going to make it. The fact that I then crashed makes this a story worth framing. It feels a bit silly, but above all I’m just incredibly happy.”

And very famous now, too. I wonder how long it will be before that photo appears on the Slock family mantelpiece?
He’s also been spared the ignominy of that image ending up in our ‘when cycling celebrations go wrong’ feature, so that’s double cause to celebrate.
