Poor old Mathieu van der Poel. Delivers a mammoth effort to almost win from basically the flag drop and then finds himself being the only rider inside the top 10 in the general classification to lose time and drop a place from fifth to sixth.

Belgium’s Tim Merlier won his second stage at this year’s Tour de France on Sunday, outsprinting Jonathan Milan and Arnaud De Lie in Châteauroux, but the real story of the day was an incredible day-long break from Alpecin-Deceuninck pair Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert.

Rickaert was awarded the day’s combativity award – “his dream is to be on the Tour de France podium,” said Van der Poel, “so I’m happy to help him.” Both, for their efforts, were spared the extra kilometre’s ride back to the bus, picked up instead at the finish, and driven back to the hotel.