It says everything, though, for the suspicion that follows cycling in the wake of the Armstrong era that Froome hesitated before revealing that his best training time up the 12 kilometre ascent was actually 38 seconds faster than Armstrong’s reported record set some 14 years earlier. Kerrison points out that Armstrong “cheated to race not to train” and is cautious about attempts to compare previous eras. The numerous potential variables in the measurement of two rides is one issue but what he most objects to is the premise that there is some cut-off point at which a performance is automatically dubious.

He also warns that the promotion of the “false belief” within cycling that the best performances are doped could take the sport back to square one. “If you take the best of the worst era, the current riders are not there,” he says. “But I am sure that clean riders will eventually surpass times from that era and I would be proud to be part of that. Our objective is to produce clean performances that are incredible and we are not going to stop trying. I think people out there putting limits on human performance are probably not the great visionary thinkers. One thing I am very sure of is that we are not yet close to reaching those limits.”