combativity

Whatever the motivation of the celebration, it was not the end of Messi's combativity.

He added a second daily combativity award to his prize from Tuesday.

As Brailsford and his staff celebrated a 10th Grand Tour win since 2012, Romain Bardet took the King of the Mountains classification while the long-term race leader and fellow French favourite, Julian Alapahilippe, who spent 14 days in the yellow jersey and won two stages, was awarded the “super combativity” prize for most aggressive rider.

Stage winners are also rewarded on a daily basis, while there is even a prize for combativity, generally given to each day’s most heroic failure.

A team looking for inspiration now that Tommy Voeckler is on the podium giving out the laurels instead of receiving them but definitely the one most likely to be chasing the overall combativity award.