The battle for the maglia rosa may have appeared to be a one-horse race at times but it was enough to cover for a bad race for the fast men.

Richie Porte’s puncture is what stage ten is best remembered for, but it was a stage where the sprinters should have played out the battle for the stage win and failed to reel in the break.

And it was not just then it happened either – the feat being repeated, inexplicably, on the pan-flat final stage.

Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) took home the red jersey in the end, without winning a single stage.

Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) and Elia Viviani (Team Sky) only managed a stage win apiece, while Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) returned home early without one to his name on his comeback from injury.

With pro cycling’s top tier cyclists – Greipel excluded – all awaiting the Tour de France instead, this was a chance for the best of the rest to prove their worth.

But only Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) realistically managed to, picking up two stage wins.

Elia Viviani ultimately paid for a lack of support in the sprints after his perfect start, with Team Sky geared towards Richie Porte’s GC challenge, while Andre Greipel and his Lotto-Soudal train only once were able to show their supremacy – though they did it in style when he did win.

Nizzolo’s consistency was rewarded with the red jersey, but the 26-year-old Italian sprinter has now finished inside the top six on 19 separate occasions at the Giro d’Italia without ever winning a stage.

Modolo and Lampre-Merida may have something to say about it, but there is nothing to suggest Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) and Giant-Alpecin duo Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb have anything to fear from sprinting’s second tier otherwise.