Alastair MacKellar freewheels down the back straight of Roubaix’s outdoor velodrome, unclips his left foot, and stops in front of his EF Education-EasyPost soigneur. The time is almost five o'clock. Half an hour has passed since Wout van Aert whipped the crowd into a frenzy by beating Tadej Pogačar in a sprint, but the atmosphere has since slumped into a lull. There's barely a patter of applause for the Australian.
In fact, most of the fans don’t notice MacKellar’s arrival at all. They've turned instead to face the big screens, squinting against the sunlight to follow the end of the women’s race. With no other riders to welcome him either, all that remains are a few photographers, three EF staff members, and a fistful of empty gel wrappers, peppered across the grass in the track centre.
