Deceuninck-Quick Step had torn the peloton apart in the crosswinds before it ever got to km 66.2, the intermediate sprint at Taranto, hometown of a forgotten sporting genius. Iccus, who either won the 84th Olympic Games in 444 BC or the 70th Games in 470 BC, depending on your source, was a descendent of the Spartans, one of those marauding peoples who roamed the Mediterranean looking for places to colonise and exploit. He prepared for the Games the Spartan way, with a frugal diet and sexual abstention. His forebears would be proud to know that all athetes are Spartans these days. After all, the dietary revolution Iccus started has become a global phenomenon, with mutinational brands taking over the world of sport – except perhaps for Simon Pellaud, in the breakaway again today. Last time, on stage 4, he had the effrontery to exhibit his preferred mid-race food to the moto camera: Colombian bocadillo – a natural gel of concentrated guava juice. Take it as an act of resistance.