To say that Rik Verbrugghe’s prologue speed of almost 59 kph makes him the fastest time trialist of all time is both accurate and misleading. Never before in the history of major prologue time trials (introduced to the Tour de France in 1967, the Giro in 1977) has there been one that wasn’t on a circuit or out-and-back course. The previous prologue record of 55.152 kph set by world hour record holder Chris Boardman at the 1994 Tour was on a 7.2km course that had five 90-degree turns, a complete traffic circle turnaround and even some cobblestones to negotiate!

The course at Pescara on Saturday was a flat, smooth oceanside road, with a favorable wind making the conditions even more straightforward: sprint out of the start house, click the chain onto the 11-tooth sprocket, and pedal as fast as you can for 7.6km (4.7 miles), with no turns or hills to worry about. It was a test of pure speed, even more so than racing on a velodrome, where at least the rider has to negotiate wide curves every few seconds.

Don’t get me wrong, Verbrugghe did a great ride to beat runner-up Dario Frigo (no slouch!) by nine seconds. But that is put into perspective when you realize that at Lille in 1994, Boardman beat the second man by 15 seconds! And the runner-up was arguably the best time trialist of all time, at the height of his form: Miguel Induráin.

If the 1994-vintage Induráin and Boardman had ridden at Pescara on Saturday, with 11-tooth sprockets, they would almost certainly have cracked 60 kph, which would have beaten Verbrugghe by at least eight seconds, probably more. Conversely, if you applied Boardman’s 55.152-kph average to the Pescara course that gives him a time of only 8:16, which would have been good enough for 48th place, tied with Mario Cipollini!

Clearly, claiming that Verbrugghe’s 58.874-kph ride was a record is absurd. If all prologues were straight-out affairs then the 60-kph barrier would have been broken years ago.