While stage wins have never been hard to come by for Cavendish, overall wins are somewhat of a luxury for sprinters.

Overall victory at the Tour of Qatar in 2013, at the start of his QuickStep career, was just his second after the ZLM-Toer in 2012, arriving thanks to total domination in the sprints as he won each of the final four stages of the pan-flat race.

Cavendish then had to wait another two years for his third overall triumph, but when it arrived it was worth waiting for – not least for the way it answered his critics at the start of the 2015 season.

Cavendish won the opening stage to claim the leader’s jersey and was second behind Elia Viviani on the following day’s stage to retain it.

On the tough uphill finish at the Hatta Dam – a stage expected to decide the overall race – Cavendish limited his losses behind stage winner John Degenkolb to ensure he trailed by just four seconds on the GC going into the final day.

Needing only to win the final stage, to guarantee enough bonus seconds to win overall, Etixx-QuickStep showed just how powerful their sprint train can be when firing.

When lead-out man Mark Renshaw peeled off, Cavendish had breathing space between himself and his rivals – victory, in the end, was never in doubt.