Diego Rosa celebrates win ‘like a circus act’

Victory celebrations range from desperately throwing your bike at the line, not even being aware of whether you’ve won or not, to the old classic where you zip up the jersey to better display the sponsor’s jersey before wheeling across the line, arms aloft. At this week’s Tour of the Basque Country, Astana’s Diego Rosa had time for something rather more elaborate.

The 27-year-old Italian had an unusually long time to ponder how he might celebrate, having ridden half the stage alone. He got all of the zipped-jersey air-punching out of the way with a few hundred metres to go and this freed him up to stop a metre before the line to do something else.

He dismounted, picked up his bike, held it aloft and walked to the win.

Best celebration I've seen all year. Chapeau @AstanaTeam https://t.co/6YQQn1u6Yv #Itzulia pic.twitter.com/H8gxjwjnRV

— CyclingHub.tv (@CyclingHubTV) April 8, 2016

Astana’s translators may not be doing Rosa justice in translating his post-race comments as: “I did like a circus act today,” but he used to be a mountain biker and said this was what inspired the celebration.

“I had still a big gap on the riders behind me so I’ve decided to cross the line as the biker normally does. I was a biker so it came natural to me. For sure, almost 130km alone at the front hasn’t been a joke but I dared, my legs gave me the answers I was searching for, and I didn’t look back until I’ve seen the arch of the finish.”