A moment's silence please

about 8 seconds' worth

for Laurent Fignon, cyclist and two times Tour de France winner (lost by 8 seconds to Greg Le Mond in 1989)

dead from cancer at age 50

RIP

"I counted eight seconds in my head, and the more I counted the more I realized what a ridiculous period of time it was. In eight seconds you don't have time to do anything!"

8seconds is crazy after 3500oddkm of cycling. That's the equivalent gap of less than 0.001seconds over a 400m race.

A top cyclist dies prematurely... Quelle Surprise!

Pretty weird thing to say.. You're assuming a linear distancing over 3500km?

I was just trying to conver the time gap at the end of the race to a far shorter race like the 400m in athletics to put it in perspective :p