Wout van Aert of Jumbo-Visma lost the yellow jersey on stage 6 of the Tour de France, but he went down swinging.
Defence would be the ordinary modus operandi of the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, especially on the longest stage of the race, which also happened to be largely flat. But Wout Van Aert is no ordinary rider.
After five days in the thick of the action, the Belgian was at it again on the long road to Longwy on stage 6, heading up the road in the day's breakaway after countless attempts to prize open the race in the opening 75km.
"It was not my plan to try this in the morning." Van Aert said, after the stage. "I hoped to be able to join a bigger break away and then maybe defend yellow and even give it a go for the stage win. Also it seemed like there was a lot of interest in the breakaway so I believed that we would end up with a lot of guys on the road.
"In the beginning was a lot of cross tailwind, it was really tricky. It seemed like it was like literally no team who wants to chase so everybody wanted to be in that break and everybody kept chasing me down."
After dropping Jakob Fuglsang and then Quinn Simmons, Van Aert ended up alone at the head of the race with 25km to go in the 220km stage, a full peloton going all-in in a strained effort to catch the fugitive yellow jersey. It was quite a sight.
"At some point we finally managed to open up a gap and then we're only with three so that was a little bit of a disappointment," Van Aert reflected. "Then I thought OK, I'm just gonna try it and enjoy myself. And if it doesn't work, then it's a it's a nice way to honour the jersey on my last day in it."
However, Van Aert's hopes of a second stage win, having grown faint when rival teams combine to mount a concerted chase in the final 50km, evaporated when he was caught with just over 10km to go. And so did his time in the yellow jersey.
On the run-in the terrain became increasingly punchy and Van Aert was soon dropped from the peloton soon after he'd rejoined it. Human after all.
He crossed the line some 7 minutes 30 seconds after Tadej Pogacar had won the stage and taken the yellow jersey from him.
"He's playing with our balls isn't he?" said Ineos Grenadiers' Tom Pidcock beyond the finish line.
"I don't know what to say to be honest. He's taking the piss, isn't he."
"At this point, nothing with this guy surprises us," added Pogacar's teammate Brandon McNulty.
Van Aert rolled across the line in a gruppetto, in what was at last a moment of calm after five action-packed stages.
He laughed off the suggestion that he might consider another attack on stage 7. "Tomorrow it will be definitely not be my day but an important day for Jonas and Primož. I think they survived well today and they could sit back in the bunch with me in front, so that was was also nice. So tomorrow I try to put them in a good position towards the climb and hopefully they can be there with the best."
When asked if his exertions from a day spent animating the race would hinder him in his bid to assist his teammates, he was not worried. "I will try to recover and help them during this stage but in the final it's up to them and to Steven and Sepp who are both going really well. So yeah. That's that's not a problem."
Wout van Aert entered this year's Tour de France as one of the strongest sprinters, and favourite for the Green jersey - see our full analysis of Tour sprinters above
After placing runner-up in the opening time trial, and then again in the subsequent bunch sprints, he produced an extraordinary exploit on stage 4, attacking on a late climb and soloing to victory in the yellow jersey.
He didn't end up riding for himself on the cobbled stage 5, but still produced one of the rides of the day, playing a critical role in limiting teammate Jonas Vingegaard's losses to Pogacar to just 13 seconds.
On Thursday, he made his intentions clear from the start, looking to rip the peloton open and force a breakaway. He was unsuccessful at first but never stopped trying. He must have made a dozen attempts, his accelerations noticeably stretching things more than any other rider.
In the end, after 75km, he was led out by Steven Kruijswijk and succeeded in snapping the elastic. However, with just two riders for company, the odds were stacked against them, and it became an even taller order when Fuglsang decided to drop back with 66km to go.
Van Aert pressed on with Simmons and gamely defended their modest advantage, but soon the US rider was no more use. He couldn't even hold the wheel on a false flat, and Van Aert simply eased away to go solo. Van Aert held his advantage of just over a minute for a good 5km but the gap started to plummet as the climbs started, and he was forced to sit up. He was caught and dropped.
In the end, Van Aert didn't win from the breakaway, lost the yellow jersey, and scored no points for the green jersey he covets.
However, he did end up with the combativity award, a result no one could argue with.
