At his coronation as Emperor of France in 1804, Napoleon put the crown on his own head, to mark that he was the one with the power, the man who had brought himself to this point. The pope was there, but he had no part in the crowning, that was left to the man who was about to become emperor to do himself.
We’ll leave the discussions of the merits of such a move to the historians, and the Frenchman’s legacy to boot, but it was what was brought to mind by Remco Evenepoel’s success at the Worlds on Sunday. The Belgian rode to victory in the individual time trial at the World Championships while aboard a golden bike, sat up before the finish line to celebrate then put on his own rainbow jersey on the podium; it felt as close to self-coronation as you could get in cycling.
