Saturday's stage 7 of Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi was meant to be the second last day of racing for retiring Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) but his retirement run was cruelly cut short when he fell halfway through the stage.
Visibly in pain as he stood on the side of the road, the rider quickly realised getting back on the bike was not an option and stepped away from racing for the last time, not with the hoped-for victory celebration but instead an injury.
The crash occurred at around 110km to go, Kristoff going down on a wide straight stretch of road in dry conditions, along with his teammate Erlend Blikra.
"I kind of lost my handlebar at full speed, 50, 60k. It was the waste zone, and I went to take a gel, just to throw it away in the waste zone after consuming it so I'm with my hand back in my pocket and suddenly there is a patch on the road, some bad condition," Kristoff explained in an interview on Uno-X social media.
He added that he had also turned his head as Erlend had said something about the waste zone.
"So just when I'm not watching the road, and with one hand on the handlebar, I hit bad tarmac, and I think my handlebar just turned. I flew over or I lost the handlebar. I'm not sure – one of two."
Fellow sprinter Blikra, who has stood on the stage podium four times so far at the event, got back on the bike and returned to the peloton, but Kristoff was in no condition to do the same.
"The hand is quite bloody and full of holes, and the arm is also bad, so it was more or less impossible to hold the handlebar with this condition," he said.
Kristoff came to Le Tour de Langkawi with wins in mind, hoping to turn his career victory total from 98 to 100 before Sunday's final stage. There was a near miss on stage 3, with Matteo Malucelli (XDS-Astana) beating the 38-year-old by just centimetres in a photo finish.
However, there were still expected to be two last sprint finishes left for the rider and both had features that played to the Norwegian's strengths. For a start, Saturday's stage was the longest at 214.9km, perfect for the 2014 Milan-San Remo winner.
"Today is a long race," Uno-X Mobility sports director Leonard Snoeks told Cyclingnews in Melaka before the start of the stage. "So he's usually good when it comes across above 200k, that's usually when he wakes up."
Then on Sunday, two category 2 climbs in the final 30km and that harder finish, Kristoff said earlier in the week, made it a potential opportunity.
Though, unfortunately, there was no chance to put that to the test.
"It's not the way I wanted to end the race or the career, but cycling is a brutal sport and it changes fast," said Kristoff. "Yesterday I was sick, today I felt a bit better, but then I go down very hard. That's life, but I will not dwell too much about it … life goes on. I had a good time here until the crash."
It may be the end of an era for the four-time Tour de France stage winner, who also includes the Tour of Flanders and Milan-San Remo among his 98 career victories, but there will be no shortage of things to keep him busy beyond cycling.
For a start, his fifth child is set to arrive in February, but on the career front there are no solid plans to announce yet.
"I will enjoy a bit time off, and then maybe in the future, maybe I come back in cycling, or maybe something else. We will see if I miss it or not," Kristoff told Cyclingnews on stage 4.
