While Egan Bernal was busy taking his first Tour de France win in Paris on Sunday – the seventh victory at the race for Team Ineos in the past eight years – four-time winner Chris Froome was sitting at home as he recovers from the crash in June that prevented him from starting this year's Tour.
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But Team Ineos manager Dave Brailsford has told the BBC that, despite having fractured his hip, femur, elbow and neck in the crash, Froome's recovery is well ahead of schedule, and that he hopes to back back racing at next year's Tour.
"He's managed to turn a pedal now with his other leg," Brailsford told BBC programme Sportsweek, referring to the social-media post by Froome last week, in which he shared a video of himself pedalling his bike on his home trainer with just one leg.
"He's well ahead of where he was hoping to be," Brailsford continued. "In typical Chris Froome fashion, he's putting everything into his recovery. Hopefully we'll see him back at the Tour de France next year."
Had Froome not crashed while warming up for the individual time trial at the Criterium du Dauphine, Ineos would have had the daunting task of trying to manage the ambitions of three riders capable of winning the Tour: Froome, Bernal and defending champion Geraint Thomas.
As it was, the two-pronged attack by Thomas and Bernal had its moments of awkwardness, but, in the end, Thomas threw his full support behind his younger teammate, and Ineos could enjoy the sight of both of their GC riders on the top two steps of the podium in Paris.
"You can't get better than second and first," said Brailsford. "In the end, it was all about the team winning."