#CreatingMemories is Sunweb’s philosophy, and as memories go, this wasn’t just for the assembled guests – RoadCyclingUK included – packed into the VIP zone at the Tour finish line; this was one for the fans, for the team and for Dumoulin himself.

Almost prophetically, one of the Sunweb cards handed to us offering clues as to what the package holiday specialists had planned for our visit to the Tour, had read ‘the best kind of memories are the unexpected ones’ – though that had referred to a private jet from Barcelona to Andorra, rather than a Giant-Alpecin stage win.

Dumoulin, team CEO Iwan Spekenbrink told us before dinner on Sunday, was not going for the stage win at the start of the day – he was in the break so the team, working for Warren Barguil, would be relieved of chasing duties in the peloton.

Spekenbrink admitted he didn’t expect the break to succeed, let alone for it to succeed with their rider, Dumoulin, going solo over the fiercely steep Andorran climbs to claim victory.

Unexpected indeed; awe-inspiring – very. This is a man with serious talent and a serious future in front of him.

Unfortunately another unexpected element of the day was the weather – the vantage point atop Arcalis, once we had been driven up the route to the summit, was a great one with a view down the final part of the climb and up to the finish line.

Of course, an apocalyptic storm hit – hailstones and all – to literally put a dampener on the afternoon, but that only added to how impressive Dumoulin’s solo ride was and then, further down the road, yellow jersey Chris Froome and white jersey Adam Yates’ efforts to stay first and second overall, nullifying the surprisingly cautious Nairo Quintana.

To watch the Tour de France procession on a mountain is a totally different experience to the flatter stages we were treated to when the Tour came to Yorkshire two years ago.

Anybody at the finish line in Harrogate or London – or even on the hilly stage to Sheffield – got a quick taste of the action as the race hurled past at break-neck speed.

On the mountains, it is very different – you can see the suffering on the rider’s faces and see how tough professional cycling truly is, from Dumoulin at the front of the race to the sprinters in the grupetto.

The fans, too, make the mountains very special – painting the roads and lining the mountain course with an explosion of colour.

Rodriguez’s fans were joined by the ‘Warren Barguil Fan Club’, while Arcalis boasted one bend completely taken over by Norwegian fans. Colombians, meanwhile, seemed to pop up everywhere in their bright yellow tops and national flags.

And as comeback rides go, Andorra represented a baptism of fire – even riding out of the city centre, the gradients are constantly nagging and I ran out of gears much earlier than I’d care to admit.

Naturally, on his rest day ride, Timmer barely broke sweat as I ‘pedalled squares’ up what was, essentially, the warm-up climb.

The Giant-Alpecin riders then went to do a casual five minutes’ worth of intervals on the Port d’Envilara – the highest climb in this year’s race – to justify spending the rest of the morning at a coffee shop. There’s a stark difference between the WorldTour’s finest and us mere mortals.

Unfortunately the rain returned later in the day, presenting the slightly ironic picture of Sunweb’s founder, in an open-roofed cathedral, explaining Sunweb’s sunny summer holiday packages while holding an umbrella as their partnership with the team was announced.

Still, when the Tour de France is town, nothing can really dampen proceedings – and certainly not when you’re in the company of a rider who has just won one of the toughest stages in this year’s race.

The future for the Giant-Alpecin team, and for Dumoulin, is certainly a lot brigher than the weather in the Andorran mountains.

RoadCyclingUK were #CreatingMemories in Andorra as guests of Sunweb, the new major partner of Team Giant-Alpecin.