Vuelta Skelter: Oh, Danny boy - remarkable comeback for Danny Van Poppel

Well, it certainly lacked the thrills and spills of Wednesday’s queen stage in Andorra, but there was something to appreciate in stage 12 to Lleida – even if we had to wait right until the bitter end for the payback.

So, who soared and who was floored? Read on to find out…

With a father boasting a career haul of 22 Grand Tour stage wins, Danny Van Poppel and his brother Boy have rather large boots to fill. But the older of the two siblings get off to a flying start with a last gasp win in Spain – despite an untimely puncture in the run-in leaving his hopes very much in the balance.

Given the work load of his team-mates throughout an otherwise quite prosaic stage, many thought Danny’s win was just rewards.

After Jasper Stuyven’s win last week, Van Poppel has delivered Trek their second scalp in Spain. The combined age of the two stage winners? 45.

Morale was high at Giant-Alpecin ahead of the stage with their social media manager hoping a little nostalgia could inspire the team – and in particular their German classics specialist – to victory.

But it was a case of too much, too early as Giant – weary from leading the chase on the day’s break – shed riders well before the finish. So when Van Poppel punctured, Degenkolb’s team-mates were nowhere to be seen.

The sprint itself saw Degenkolb once again caught out of position and boxed in, the Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix winner unable to challenge Van Poppel for the win.

And the frustration was clear for Degenkolb, who hammered the handlebars in frustration after seeing another chance go begging.

The world of cycling was unanimous that Trek had played their cards perfectly, not even allowing that unfortunately flat tyre derail their plan.

Trek veteran Frank Schleck was so ecstatic that he forgot Eurosport was a family channel when speaking to Laura Meseguer after the stage.

Of course, there’s a fine line between success and failure – and in the end, one of the two remaining escapees swept up on the home straight could well have won had the 173km stage been 0.11% shorter.

After the six mountain peaks of stage 11 the relatively tame parcours of stage 12 was always going to struggle to get the juices flowing – until that final flourish, of course.

At least there was something to look at – including a quite spectacular gorge (or was it a canyon?) cut out by the river Segre.

It was music to everyone’s ears to experience a stage devoid of road rash for a change…

Although with all the talk still centring on the controversial spate of collisions with race vehicles, you’d think there may have been less kamikaze motorbike manoeuvres in the finale… Wouldn’t you?

Leading us to one conclusion, sadly.