At what point do you start to worry about Chris Froome's Tour de France chances?
Even as he rode to an anonymous 18th at the Tour de Romandie, making it the first time since 2012 he hadn't registered a victory in the first four months of the season, his calibre and palmares bought him time.
The Critérium du Dauphiné, it was said, would be the acid test. On each of the three occasions Froome has won the Tour, he won the Dauphiné a month beforehand.
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But the week-long French race has rolled around and in the first test for the GC contenders, the stage 4 time trial, provided far more questions than answers.
Froome, whose top form would ordinarily see him put time into each and every one of his rivals over a flat 23.5km course, finished 37 seconds down on Richie Porte (BMC Racing), and was slower than Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
Team Sky Directeur Sportif Nicolas Portal admitted that Froome was "disappointed" and "lacking a little something", but he insisted that patience should be extended until the end of the week.
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