The UAE Team Emirates rider dominated throughout the stage race, adding to his UAE Tour triumph and an impressive victory at Strade Bianche after a solo effort launched with 50 kilometres remaining of the one-day race.

While the race in several months away, the early season form suggests Pogačar will be the clear favourite heading into the Tour de France as the 23-year-old bids to win the Grand Tour for the third successive year.

A lot can go wrong on a three-week bike race with this year’s event seeing cyclist’s cover a total of 3,328 kilometres, with numerous twists and turns to negotiate on the road, let alone battling your rivals.

One such issue occurred during Tirreno–Adriatico this week, with Pogačar one of a three-rider general classification group to see their hopes of a stage five victory go up in smoke when they took a wrong turn.

Pogačar, Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel and Denmark’s Jonas Vinegegaard had been chasing a breakaway group in the final five kilometres of the stage in Fermo, but failed to account for a right hand turn.

Instead of turning onto a steep climb, the three riders continued down a section of road for 50 metres, before having to correct their course of direction. Pogačar, Vinegegaard and Evenepoel finished 28 seconds behind the stage winner Warren Barguil, leaving them ruing their mistake and suggesting poor signage from race marshalls.

"I knew that the right moment to attack had come,” Evenepoel said after the stage. "I was joined only by Pogacar and Vingegaard, and we went full gas on the descent and had a good gap, but then there was almost nothing and no one to show us that we should go right, so instead of this we continued to ride straight ahead and our promising move ended there.

"Fortunately, I had the legs to make up the gap, and also with some help of Ballero, I managed to return in the pack, but it’s a pity how things turned out at a moment when they were looking so good."

Their misfortune or mistake is not uncommon, particularly in recent months where taking the wrong way has become something of a theme for sporting stars.

Norwegian Nordic combined star Jarl Magnus Riiber was crowned World Cup champion today, having been largely the dominant force in the sport in recent years.

His Beijing 2022 experience was one to forget though, due to missing the opening event after a COVID-19 positive. Riiber looked poised to put that behind him after leading the ski jumping section of the large hill event at the Games, just days after being released from quarantine.

Riiber saw his 44-second advantage largely evaporate after going the wrong way on the cross-country section, leading to him having to ski back towards his rivals before re-joining the correct part of the course.

"It's a silly mistake and it's not fun to show the world that I'm maybe wasting a gold medal on that," said Riiber.

"It's silly to do that mistake but on a normal day with that mistake as well I would be in the fight, I'm a good sprinter and I would fight for the gold anyway."

Riiber ultimately missed out on a medal ending down in eighth place, finishing 39 seconds behind the eventual winner Jørgen Graabak.

Graabak, while celebrating his victory, was also sympathetic to his compatriot after the event.

"I saw we were under a minute behind so I knew something was up," said Graabak.

"Then I heard after a few hundred metres that Jarl went round, so that was a positive message because then I knew he didn't hurt himself or was totally out of whack.

"Of course, I wouldn't wish that on anyone; to go wrong at the Olympics."

Sadly for Riiber, the Winter Olympics was not the first time he had taken a wrong turn. As an 18-year-old, he was denied the second World Cup win of his fledgling career when he went the wrong way into the stadium in Lahti, allowing Germany’s Eric Frenzel to triumph instead.

Thankfully for Riiber, he has secured four world titles and four overall World Cups since.

The greats certainly aren’t infallible, potentially as they do not have anyone else to follow.

Kenya’s world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge earlier this month briefly took a wrong turn 10 kilometres into the Tokyo Marathon, but recovered to win in 2 hours 02min 40sec, the fastest time ever run in Japan.

Similarly, the great Paralympian Marcel Hug won the men’s wheelchair event for the fifth time at the Boston Marathon back in October, despite a brief detour from the official course.

The error did not impact the result of the race, but cost him a potential $50,000 (£38,000/€46,000) bonus which he could have received for breaking his own course record.

It the easy to be sympathetic in events taking place on the roads, where the speed the athletes are competing at may contribute to misjudging the route on occasions.

A mistake seems more inexplicable in a controlled setting, such as on an athletics’ track in a stadium.

Yet Kenyan runner Beatrice Chepkoech bizarrely carried on during the women’s steeplechase final during the 2017 World Athletics Championships, as the remainder of the field veered left to tackle the water jump.

Chepkoech recovered and caught back to the group, although the energy expended may have proved costly as she eventually finished in fourth place.

There were no such issues two years later in Doha, when as the world record holder Chepkoech produced a Championship record time to earn her first world title.

While some stars have taken the wrong turn on occasion, there is no doubts that their careers have gone in the right direction.