Blazin' Saddles: Six talking points from Yorkshire, Romandie and beyond

With races going on in Romandie, Yorkshire, Turkey and the Asturias – to name but a selection – it was a busy weekend in the cycling calendar as plots and subplots played out across Europe.

Here's a run through at some of the main talking points...

The Grand Tour season is yet to get going but already Colombia's Nairo Quintana looks the most deadly and consistent of the so-called 'Big Four'. After the overall victory in March's Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, the 26-year-old Movistar rider mounted the podium in Geneva on Sunday to secure the Tour de Romandie by 19 seconds over Thibaut Pinot, with his main rival for the Tour de France – Britain's Chris Froome – nowhere to be seen (at least, on GC terms).

The seeds of Quintana's Romandie triumph were sown in the second mountainous stage to Morgins, where he was awarded the win after Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) was relegated to second place following an obstruction on a day Froome conceded more than 17 minutes. Chuck in the Colombian's runner-up finishes in the Tour de San Luis and the Tour of the Basque Country earlier in the season, and it's clear that last year's runner-up in the Tour is in a better position than ever to trade in the white jersey he has twice won (and is no longer eligible for) for the fabled maillot jaune.

Indeed, three of the previous five winners at Romandie have gone on to win the Tour in July. Although the race was not entirely without incident to Quintana...

You don't often see Chris Froome attack from a breakaway of escape-artists on the final stage of a rain-soaked race – but that's just what happened on Sunday's final stage in the Tour de Romandie. Already way out of contention on GC after puncturing and failing to rejoin the main pack ahead of two decisive climbs in stage two, Froome was playing for scraps in the fifth and final stage.

To his immense credit, Froome had already shown character by putting in a solid time trial in Friday's stage three (he took fourth) before winning Saturday's mountainous fourth stage at Villars-sur-Ollon. By placing himself in Sunday's break, the message was clear: yes, I mucked up in stage two, but discount me at your peril.

A previous incarnation of Froome would have perhaps packed up and left Switzerland after his and his team's ramshackle second stage (Geraint Thomas himself lost more than 27 minutes while Froome had no support when he punctured at a key moment). After all, the weather was foul and morale must have been rock-bottom – especially with news filtering through about the Shane Sutton scandal back in the UK.

But the experience of the next few days must have been invaluable for Froome and his team – not least because of the fact that the key Alpine stages in this year's Tour de France take place in Switzerland. What's more, Froome won his stage on Saturday after dropping BMC's Tejay Van Garderen on the steep Barboleusaz climb before holding off the chasing pack on a rain-soaked descent – and many key mountain stages in this year's Tour culminate with tricky downhills, a skill Froome is often lambasted for.

"I think our team has struggled this week but I'm not at all worried about the Tour de France. Some guys will recover after this and come back even stronger so I'm not worried right now," Froome said as he ended his week by picking up the combativity prize after getting into a 10-man break in the final stage to Geneva.

What he might be worried about is Quintana – and Movistar's – form. They have looked formidable at times this season – enough to suggest that the Colombian will push Froome even more than he did during the Briton's last two Tour wins.

While the focus is still very much on Froome and Quintana battling it out for the Tour, with perhaps Alberto Contador having his say for Tinkoff, there are growing ripples emanating from France indicating that Thibaut Pinot is really ready to make a splash.

If 5,000-1 outsiders Leicester City can upset the so-called Big Four and win the English Premier League then surely a stellar French talent who finished on the Tour podium two years ago and who is entering his best years can be given serious outsider status for this July's Grande Boucle?

After all, the accusation we'd all use to throw at Pinot was that he couldn't ride downhill or time trial – aspects of his cycling armoury that now seem like real weapons as opposed to ostensible Archilles' heels.

When Pinot won a time trial in the Criterium International there were a few sniggers, but his victory in the Tour de Romandie ITT – against chrono specialist Tom Dumoulin (Giant Alpecin) no less – further underlined that the 26 year-old must be taken seriously. Sure, both his winning ITTs this season have come over hilly parcours – but then both the Tour's races against the clock are hilly too.

It's been a long time coming – three years, in fact – since Thomas Voeckler took a win of any renown, but the French housewives' favourite was back to his knee-trembling best over the weekend as he took the final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire (and the overall classification with it) in Scarborough.

The 36-year-old Direct Energie livewire was denied a victory on the Yorkshire riviera last year when Team Sky's Lars-Petter Nordhaug got the better of him in Scarborough on the opening day of the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire. Voeckler wasn't going to be caught out in the same scenario for a second year running: having created a gap with Nico Roche over their fellow escapees entering the final kilometre, the veteran danced clear with 300 metres remaining to deny the Sky man the spoils.

Seeing that Voeckler is perhaps the most-loved non-British rider to many cycling fans in the UK, the crowds in Scarborough were suitably enamoured by the Frenchman's overall win. Chapeau, Thomas... In the words of Carlton Kirby: "Voeckler's still got it!"

The weekend didn't exactly start well for the Yates household: after what could have been dubbed the first occurrence of "administrative doping" in the sport, Simon Yates was revealed to have failed a test for the banned substance terbutaline (a common treatment for asthma) following the failure of a doctor at his Orica-GreenEdge team applying for the requisite therapeutic use exemption during Paris-Nice.

But things would improve: first the UCI announced that Yates – although not yet out of the woods – would not be suspended after the hiccup; this was then capped by Simon's twin brother Adam's strong showing in the Tour de Yorkshire.

Yates finished third in the final stage to cement a fourth-place finish on GC – the highest of a British rider – to help redress the damage caused by last week's British Cycling crisis, the controversial resignation of Sutton, and his brother's shock positive test.

But Yates's performance in the hilly three-day race bodes well for the second half of the season, where the Tour de France and the Olympic road race will be among the 23 year-old's objectives.

"If I can take a stage [on the Tour] that will be perfect," Yates told SBS on Sunday. "If I can take two stages that will be even better. That's what we're aiming for but it's not too easy. The Tour is the biggest race in the world."

Another British youngster currently making ripples is Hugh Carthy of Caja Rural. After blasting onto the scene with a top-10 finish in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya in March – one place below Froome, no less – Carthy's stock rose further this weekend with overall victory in the Vuelta Asturias Julio Alvarez Mendo.

Sure, it's not the biggest race known to man, but the 21-year-old climber showed his class by winning the opening mountain-top finish ahead of team-mate Sergio Pardilla before finishing third in stage three to become the first Briton to take the overall victory in the three-stage event.

With pro-continental outfit Caja Rural – on blistering form last week with a trio of victories in the Tour of Turkey – named among the wildcards for this year's Vuelta a Espana, Carthy could well be given a chance to rub shoulders with the best later this year.