Yesterday La Vuelta stole the show rather, with riders caught on camera throwing punches at one another in the middle of the peleton. Over here in the UK, the Tour of Britain had an interesting if largely sedate day which saw home-nation teams well represented in the breakaway.

When it came to the sprint finish, the haematoma in his leg prevented Cavendish from contending, and Marcel Kittel might have left some of his juice back on the Welsh border. It was the turn of Mark Renshaw, typically the one leading Cav to the line, to take the sprint finish and win at Llandudno promenade.

Today’s stage looks likely to see the drama return to the Tour, with the day finishing on top of the Tumble mountain above Blaenavon in South Wales.

No, you’re right, it does sound like something out of Game of Thrones.

In 2009 it was even the setting of a tense battle during the national championships, when Bradley Wiggins and an unknown chap called Chris Froome thrashed it out head-to-head on the Tumble.

This year’s Tour of Britain uses this notorious summit to set up a tasty finish to a day’s cycling, the kind that sorts out the pack and gives us some idea as to who may pull on the winner’s jersey in London. There’s no Chris Froome here this time, of course, but if the determination shown yesterday by other leading players in the peleton is anything to go by, Wiggins won’t have an easy skirmish to look forward to on The Tumble.