If the preceding 214 kilometres had been devoid of spectacle and intrigue, the steep final ramp to the finish line in Peyragudes on stage 12 of the Tour de France more than made up for it. Chris Froome, for only the second time in his career, saw the yellow jersey snatched from his shoulders, but the finale also had shades of the Team Sky controversy that unfolded further down the mountain five years ago.
Chris Froome's brief attack on teammate and race leader Bradley Wiggins that day in 2012 is now the stuff of legend and, though clearly not on the same level, there were question marks over Mikel Landa's role as Froome struggled on the brutally steep gradients.
The Spaniard, Froome's last teammate and himself in the top 10 overall, didn't look around as the maillot jaune lost ground, instead forging on to finish fourth on the stage. Soon doing the rounds on social media was television footage showing Team Sky director sportif Nicolas Portal admonishing Landa outside the team bus.
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"The final 200 metres became a sprint in which, more so than time being lost, the stage victory was being played out, and it didn't occur to me to look back," Landa told the Cope radio station from the mountainside.
The Spaniard, rumoured to be leaving Sky at the end of the season, also suggested he could have won the stage, were it not for the brief to launch Froome.
"I was going really well, and if I'd have been going for the stage win maybe I'd have been further forward," Landa said. "I don't know about winning it, but I could have contested it."
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