There was something in the air on the Markstein, amid the smoke rising from sausage-laden barbecues and the mist swirling to cleanse the mountainside after each blast of sudden, torrential rain. The crowds had cycled and hiked up in their thousands, and only a narrow strip of road was available amid the thick tunnel of fans on the final climb of the Col du Haag.
Paul Seixas had ridden a quiet race up to this point, but this feverish atmosphere simply demanded he roar into life.
