A brilliant Tour with a question to answer in the mountains

Full disclosure. As both a cycling nut and committed Francophile, the Tour de France is arguably my favourite three weeks of the year and I certainly wasn't disappointed by this year's race.

Chapeau to Christian Prudhomme for designing a route that provided both fine racing and a spectacular advert for the tourist board.

From a rainy Copenhagen to a sunny Champs-Elysees, the 109th edition had it all. The Danes were undoubtedly inspired by the racing starting in their homeland and took four stage wins in total - a stark contrast to when Britain hosted the Grand Depart in 2014 and neither Chris Froome nor Mark Cavendish made it to stage five, while by his own admission, David Millar wasn't even invited!

Both Magnus Cort and Mads Pedersen won stages but it was the best of Denmark's riders, Jonas Vingegaard, who was the star, swapping last year's second place for the top step of the podium.

Vingegaard battled magnificent mountains, scorching summer days and awkward opponents to win his maiden Grand Tour, defeating double defending champion Tadej Pogacar. Pogacar pushed and probed but the 25-year-old held his wheel and then left him behind with his blistering attacks on the Col du Granon and the climb to Hautacam.

His Jumbo-Visma colleague Wout van Aert also played his part in piloting him to success while simultaneously taking the green points jersey. All this happened without co-leader Primoz Roglic who crashed early and was never the same, while key domestique Steven Kruijswijk didn't make the third week.

In all, the outcome was a deserved result for a team who have had riders on the podium in each of the three previous Tours and now finally have a winner.

However, as a Yorkshireman, I can always find a downside and one thing that has irked me both this year and in recent ones has been the structure of the mountains competition.

Vingegaard's dominance meant he also picked up the polka dot jersey, making this the third straight Tour in which the general classification winner's haul has also included the mountains prize.

It's becoming predictable and feels almost against the spirit of an award that provokes nostalgic images of daring breaks by those who know they cannot compete for three weeks but can shine brightly when the opportunity arises.

This prize should belong to riders like the one who sheepishly donned the dots into Paris, Simon Geschke. The German animated the race, doing his best to get into the break in both the Alps and Pyrenees, but fell agonisingly short as he ran out of gas on stage 18 to Hautacam.

If the division of points was altered to make Geschke and teams like his Cofidis outfit see the jersey as a realistic pre-Tour goal, would that make for a more exciting race? Probably, and it might be something for Monsieur Prudhomme and his staff to explore.

Even so, for me, this was the greatest Tour of my viewing lifetime. The racing was fabulous and the budding rivalry between Vingegaard and Pogacar means I'm already looking forward to more of the same next year.

How can anyone doubt Haaland?

The great thing about writing this column, for me at least, is it provides the opportunity to be shamelessly self-indulgent.

Therefore, I had written a wishful section on how the signing of Gianluca Scamacca guarantees my team, West Ham, a successful season.

You never know; it might. However, Liverpool fans aside, the striker we're all excited to see in the Premier League is Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.

The Reds' acquisition of Darwin Nunez is interesting, but Haaland's arrival could be a real game changer.

The Norwegian netted 86 goals in 89 games at Borussia Dortmund and his decision in 2020 to shun bigger clubs and move to Germany as a stepping stone showed exceptional wisdom for someone who, lest we forget, was then a teenager and even now has only just turned 22.

City snared him ahead of Real Madrid, which is a statement in itself, but the bish bosh of the Bundesliga is a different story to the Premier League, where teams are less inclined to try and go out and smash opponents.

However, like Scamacca with Italy, if things don't initially work out, Norway's failure to qualify for the World Cup means the unique timing of the tournament will give Haaland a chance to refresh and recharge while his colleagues and opponents are battling it out in Qatar.

Pep Guardiola preached patience after Haaland scored at the weekend but his record coaching Samuel Eto'o and Robert Lewandowski shows he is pretty good at working with 'number nines', although a certain Mr Ibrahimovic may disagree.

Haaland may take time to settle but once he finds his form, he's going to be frightening.

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