Compare and contrast this year’s race to recent editions, where cobbles, coastal crosswinds, and short, steel climbs have wreaked havoc on the peloton, and it’s even more pertinent.

The controversy that marred the end of the stage four, with Mark Cavendish crashing out of the race and Peter Sagan disqualified, masked what had been a clear warning of what has followed.

That day, only one rider got in the breakaway – Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Wanty Groupe-Gobert) – and Team Sky were absolved of chasing duties, despite holding the yellow jersey, with QuickStep Floors leading the peloton.

An earlier crash, at 1km to go, took Kittel out of contention for the sprint finish as French champion Arnaud Demare (FDJ) claimed stage victory – but it has been all about the German since then.

Offredo, in a video filmed on the team bus after the stage, questioned why nobody joined him up the road or tried a counter-attack – something Dimension Data’s Bernie Eisel was also surprised about when speaking on TV after the stage.

Highlighting former Team Sky team-mate-turned-pundit Juan Antonio Flecha’s penchant for the late breakaway, he questioned why nobody was willing to take a punt in the same manner.

But as much as the riders are at fault for negative racing, something breakaway master Jens Voigt saw coming when he finally retired in 2014, organisers ASO also need to take some blame. If this year’s route was drafted to try and engineer a challenge to Chris Froome’s recent dominance, then it has resulted in lacklustre racing outside of the mountains (stage nine provided one of the most dramatic stages in recent Tours, of course).

Looking at recent editions of the Tour, it is clear the 2017 route is the anomaly when it comes to its lack of action. Kittel dominated the sprints early in 2014 too, winning in Harrogate, London and Lille inside the first four days.

But then we had cobbles to enjoy on stage five, and series of short, punchy climbs late on stages seven and 11.

In 2015 the action was even more unpredictable – coastal crosswinds blew the peloton apart on stage two, uphill finishes on the Mur de Huy, into Le Havre and on the Mur de Bretagne created more time splits and there were even more cobbles on stage four.

It’s even more of a shame since every minute of this year’s Tour de France is being shown live on television.

But do not despair, there is at least some good news – things are about to hot up.

The climbs come thick and fast from now on, with even the more sprint-friendly stages offering enough of the lumpy stuff to entice riders to finally get in the breakaway.

Here’s hoping, anyway!