Thankfully, unlike the farcical officiating at the Etihad, the ref at St James’ Park on Saturday didn’t thoroughly spoil the spectacle for the watching millions, by sending the wrong player off in the opening seconds.

Last year’s overall winner Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post) out-galloped a large bunch into Skerries yesterday to take victory at the end of stage eight of the An Post Rás as overnight leader, Frenchman Nicolas Baldo, finished safely in the main field to bring the final yellow jersey home to France.

Another cracking day’s racing on the An Post Rás saw the Swiss team play pass the parcel with the yellow jersey as Nicolas Baldo took over the race lead and young Frenchman Thomas Rostollan lived up to his nickname of ‘little motorbike’ to claim stage three into Buncrana.