For perhaps eight seconds he coasts on in ecstasy, arms spread wide, before craning back over his left shoulder and noting the curious fact that the peleton he has headed to the finish appears to be proceeding in regulation fashion. And gaining on him inexorably.

Thump-a-thump-thump goes the heart of the 23-year-old from Ljubljana as he realises he has Celebrated Too Soon and there is a final 6.2km lap to go. He is swiftly subsumed into the not-even-chasing pack…

As Pibernik passed what he took to be the winning post, the commentator on the TV clip could be heard asking plaintively: "Can he not hear the bell?!"Normally, no doubt, Pibernik would have done - but this, he clearly believed, was an abnormal, an extraordinary moment.

Even though his exultation soon turned into something horribly different, the Bahrain-Merida rider can at least now say to himself, among other things, that he has entered sporting history by joining a throng of others who have miscalculated in similar fashion at times of high endeavour.

Pibernik’s actions mimicked almost exactly those of Italian Superbike rider Riccardo Russo in the 2012 Italian CIV championship race at Mugello. With a lead of around three bike lengths, the Yamaha Team Italia FMI rider decelerated and raised his hand in triumph as he approached the line before standing up on his foot-pegs and pumping his fists in the air.

All too soon, however, the rest of the field came past him, engaged as it was on the final lap. It was to Russo’s credit that he managed to regain some momentum and finish 14th out of the 33 finishers.

Similar confusion overtook Lopez Lomong, the naturalised United states athlete born in trouble-ravaged South Sudan, as he took part in his first 5,000 metres race in 2012. Lomong, who had been the US flagbearer at Beijing 2008, where he reached the 1500m semi-finals, lost his bearings after setting off at the longer distance which he was hoping to run at that year’s Olympics.

Spectators at the Payton Jordan Invitational, held at Stanford University, saw Lomong sprint well clear of his nearest challenger before crossing the line with arms raised and slowing to a jog.

Problematically, he was then told he had another 400m to go, but he managed to find enough within to retain his lead at the real finish, clocking a 2012 world-leading time.

At the subsequent Olympic trials, Lomong got all his calculations correct as he confirmed his London 2012 place by taking the third automatic qualifying place, and went on to finish 10th in the Olympic final.

Four years later at Rio 2016, the US men’s 4x100m team completed a full lap of honour complete with high fives and Stars and Stripes flags draped over their shoulders after taking bronze behind Jamaica and Japan. It was not until they were being interviewed on live TV that news came through they had been disqualified due to a faulty first exchange between lead-off runner Mike Rodgers and individual silver medallist Justin Gatlin.

"Hell, we already did the victory lap and when we got to TV, they told us," said former world champion Tyson Gay.

Awkward.

As it was, indeed, for Britain’s - and Scotland’s - European 800m champion Tom McKean at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo. The not so canny Scot slowed dramatically as he approached the line with a clear lead in his opening heat. But the intended saving of energy for the next round proved to be in vain as, in last couple of strides, his involvement in the competition was ended when the two qualifying places were claimed by Billy Konchellah of Kenya and Mark Everett of the United States, eventual gold and bronze medallists.

NHL fans still vividly recall the premature triumphal noise made by followers of the Dallas Stars as, with 12 seconds remaining in a key match against the Edmonton Oilers, their Swedish player Patrik Stefan glided towards an empty net with the puck under control and the formality of sealing victory for his side, who were already 5-4 up, imminent.

But as he moved the puck from forehand to backhand for the coup de grace, a rut in the ice caused it to flip back over his stick. His attempt to reclaim it as he slipped sent it scooting back towards an Oilers player, who swiftly transferred it to the other goal, where an equaliser was scored.

The Stars went on to win the match with a 6-5 shoot-out victory. But the fans still remember the foregoing faux pas.

American Football had its own iconic "How Did He Get That Wrong?" moment when 21-year-old DeSean Jackson, playing for the Philadelphia Eagles against the Dallas Cowboys, literally threw away what would have been his first NFL touchdown as he discarded the ball behind him just before actually reaching the end zone, where he then engaged in an energetic victory dance.

But when it comes to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, it could be argued that no one will ever match the performance of US snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis, who was cruising along to the finish line in the snowboard cross final at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin when she decided to enliven the run-in with a little trick-jump flourish.

After spinning her board in mid-air, Jacobellis misjudged her landing and fell onto the side of the course, allowing Tanja Frieden of Switzerland to come past her. Lindsey, who got up to recover a silver, admitted afterwards: "I was caught up in the moment."

Oh dear. It does seem to be something of a US speciality doesn’t it?