Chris Froome's pre-Tour de France form will be tested tomorrow on stage 3 of La Route d'Occitanie-La Dépêche du Midi (2.1) in France when the riders face a summit finish.
The opening two stages of the race have ended in bunch sprints - won by Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-McLaren) - with Colbrelli holding the leader's jersey.
Egan Bernal is best placed of the Team Ineos riders, sitting in 12th overall. He is 16 seconds down on Colbrelli, due to time bonuses, and is among a large group of riders all equal on time, including Froome.
Team Ineos has said it wants to win the overall and believes it is well-placed to do so, though has not stated which of its riders is favoured for the overall.
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While Froome, who suffered a career-threatening crash just over a year ago, had already raced this year before competition was suspended due to Covid19, those outings were without pressure as the season was only starting.
However, with the Tour de France now less than four weeks away, his form needs to be taking shape if he is to threaten in France, or even make the Team Ineos line-up for the race.
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It will soon become clearer tomorrow if his condition is close to his former best when stage 3 takes the riders some 163.5km from Saint-Gaudens to the summit finish on Col de Beyrède, a 10.9km climb with an average gradient of 7.2 per cent.
That climb comes at the end of a tough stage which includes a cat 3 climb crested at 49km. That is followed by the 19.4km cat 1 Port de Bales, peaked at 93.5km, and the cat 1 Col de Peyresourde; 9.7km with an average gradient of 7.6 per cent crested at 119km.
While Froome does not have to win the stage, or even go close, to prove that he is genuinely on the way back, the cycling world will be looking closely at his condition to see how far he has come since a very gentle return to racing at UAE Tour way back in February.
Both Froome and his Team Ineos squad have repeatedly spoken of how far he has progressed and how much quality training he has done since racing was suspended.
Tomorrow should offer a good indication if he has the condition to contend again and his performances over coming days and weeks will also be closely watched by Israel Start-Up Nation, the team that has signed him for the next five years.
Tomorrow's stage will also offer the opportunity for Tour de France champion, Bernal, and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) to gauge their form as the biggest show of the year approaches fast.
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