To a certain degree, doping took a back-seat, not least because of the corruption scandal in football and athletics, particularly Russia, being dragged through the drug-tainted mud.
But for one person it certainly didn't feel like cycling was being relieved.
Briton Froome, 30, won his second Tour de France title, demonstrating he has no peers across the three-week stage-race format, a year on from failing to defend his title after fracturing his wrist in a fall that forced him out of the race.
The Grand Boucle was supposed to be all about the 'Fantastic Four' but reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali cracked on the first mountain finish, Alberto Contador wilted little by little as his ambitious attempts to compete a Giro d'Italia-Tour double proved beyond him, and Nairo Quintana timed his last-gasp charge too late.
