‘Tous contre Froome’ (‘All against Froome’) was a phrase that appeared in several French newspapers when the 30-year-old took yellow on stage ten with a dominant display on the first day in the Pyrenees.

Froome’s performance was awe-inspiring, with many fearing the race could well have been over at that early stage because of the sheer strength of the Kenyan-born Brit and his Team Sky lieutenants. The only thing for it, the French media decided, was for all the other contenders to join forces in trying to attack Froome – hoping to expose some chink in his armour before the end of the third week.

The strength of the Froome acted as a spur for the other GC hopefuls, all of whom mustered tremendous reserves of courage to make Froome’s 11 remaining days in yellow before the race reached Paris as uncomfortable as possible.

Fortunately, Froome’s discomfort made for great sport, with countless attacks, feints and blow-ups on the in the mountains. Watching the Movistar duo of Quintana and Valverde go to work on Froome with a series of staggering one-two blows, and the resilient champ taking each of these in his pedal-stroke was the kind of pugilistic high-drama you don’t see often outside of a Rocky movie.