Geraint Thomas showed his resoluteness by finishing stage 16 after his spectacular crash on a high-speed corner, and doing so in enough time to hold his sixth place overall.

But while he is rightly being acknowledged for his toughness, the crash itself could so easily have been avoided.

When Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) bolted down the descent almost 20 minutes earlier, it was with a clear purpose in mind – to catch lone leader Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida) and make up for the time lost on the climb.

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), meanwhile, attacked from the front of the GC group – earning the gap on the ascent and extending it with his show of descending quality.

Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin), however, could only have hoped to eke out a handful of seconds on his rivals and probably not even that.

There is nothing wrong with aggressive riding – in fact it ultimately marks the difference between the contenders and the also-rans.

But there is also a time and a place for it – Plaza was solo, Sagan was solo, Nibali was solo but Barguil was not on a descent which had already been earmarked as a dicey one.

Thomas eluded to it himself post-stage, saying: “It’s frustrating because you try so hard to get over that climb. I don’t know why guys don’t just sit where they are on descents.”

You have to take risks to earn rewards, but Barguil could easily have ended his own race, let alone others, for the sake of a second or two which would not have made much difference overall given the race situation at the time.