The highlight of the day came on the way back from the finish of the stage, some 6km from the press room.

Stuck in the middle of a horrible traffic jam was a red Fiat containing race director Jean-Marie Leblanc.

This clearly wasn't good enough, even for a man as amiable as Jean-Marie, and soon he was marching purposefully to the next roundabout where he took it upon himself to begin organising the traffic.

An unsuspecting and ineffectual gendarme on the pavement was left shaking his head as one of Monsieur Leblanc's right-hand men began helping him direct the cars - quite well as it happens.

The same thing then happened further down the road - I guess that's what they call hands-on leadership.

And we even managed to get back to the press room in time for the buffet...