---
title: A millimetre decides a 196.3 km cycling race
date: 2026-10-05T04:59:42Z
modified: 2026-10-05T05:02:54Z
permalink: "https://www.had.si/blog/en/2026/10/05/a-millimetre-decides-a-196-3-km-cycling-race/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: After 196.3 kilometres at the European Cycling Championships, a photo finish separated Remco Evenepoel from Giulio Ciccone by a millimetre.
wpid: 390442
categories:
  - cycling
tags:
  - cycling
  - European Cycling Championships
  - European Cycling Championships 2026
  - Giulio Ciccone
  - ljubljana
  - photo finish
  - Remco Evenepoel
  - road cycling
  - Slovenia
  - english
  - pll_6ac32f2c5178f
language:
  - english
post_translations:
  - pll_6ac32f2c5178f
featured_image: "https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ep-kolesarstvo.jpg"
featured_image_alt: ep kolesarstvo
timestamp: 2026-10-05T05:02:54Z
---

A millimetre is not always just a millimetre. Sometimes it is the difference between gold (Remco Evenepoel) and silver (Giulio Ciccone), between becoming European champion and spending a long time wondering whether you should have pushed your bike across the finish line a second earlier. After 196.3 kilometres of racing, after hours of effort, climbs, attacks, breakaways, chasing and tactics, all that remained was a photo finish. And a millimetre.

That is, really, the best possible summary of cycling. You can do everything right, survive every attack and every trap the route has in store, only for the European title to be decided by a moment the naked eye cannot even make out. But this race was not interesting solely because of its finish.

Slovenia once again showed that it knows how to organise a major sporting event. The route was ready, the roads were in order, the organisation worked and there were huge crowds by the roadside. And something that is now almost worth mentioning separately: the fans actually cheered. They did not run in front of the riders, jump into the road or try to get their five seconds of TikTok fame by ruining somebody’s race or season. Miracles do apparently still happen.

A special thank you also goes to the mayors of the municipalities the race passed through. When the European Championships come to town, it is apparently possible to patch the tarmac, sort out the kerbs, clean the roads and ensure that cyclists are not riding over the craters the rest of us have to dodge every day. Perhaps we have just discovered the solution to Slovenian roads. Every municipality should host the European Cycling Championships once a year. Within a few years, we would have the best roads in Europe.

Events like this are also far better promotion for Slovenia than many an expensive tourism campaign. Television footage of the landscape, roads full of fans, villages the race passes through, and the sense that for a few hours everything revolves around cycling.

Almost 200 kilometres of racing, several hours of effort, countless decisions, attacks and pedal strokes. And at the end, a photograph of the finish line. And the millimetre that decides who becomes European champion.

And one more thing. Praise for RTV Slovenija and the entire television crew involved in producing the international feed. The broadcast was excellent, while the aerial shots sold Slovenia to Europe far better than many a multimillion-euro tourism campaign. These are the things viewers at home take for granted until somebody does them badly. Behind them are cameras, motorbikes, direction, connections, technology and a huge number of people. That is also why, in the referendum on abolishing the compulsory levy, I will vote AGAINST.