On the topic of sprinting kings, Elia Viviani leaves the Tour of Britain with the sprinting bragging rights thanks to his three stage wins.

OK, so one of those was thanks to Andre Greipel’s relegation, but the Italian has shown himself to be a tactically aware sprinter – finding gaps to exploit as he did on stage one and almost did on stage eight until he was impeded.

Team Sky promised they would compete across the board and the addition of a top sprinter filled one of the voids they had previously had – at least since Mark Cavendish’s departure and Edvald Boasson Hagen’s loss of form.

Viviani beat both Greipel and Cavendish in Wrexham to prove he can be considered among the top sprinters, and Team Sky’s efforts to set him up proved they can work for a sprinter too – a testing point after Cavendish lasted just a year with the team.

Consistency will be the next step for Viviani and Team Sky, but three stage wins for him and a further stage win and second overall for Wout Poels equate to a very successful Tour of Britain for Team Sky.