When you win the Tour de France, you tend to find that the following winter gets full of more sponsorship commitments and assorted distractions than seemed to be around the previous year.

It’s easy to get distracted and find yourself starting the new season with too few miles in the legs and a number on the scales you didn’t want to see.

This time last year, after an admittedly slow start to the season, Nibali was flying away up the Cipressa on an impressive, if ultimately doomed, attack and complaining of a lack of allies afterwards. This year he was getting dropped by a group containing renowned climber André Greipel.

Admittedly, Nibali’s main goal for the season won’t be happening until July, but it’s safe to say that after his poor performance at Tirenno-Adriatico there will be questions asked in the Astana squad about whether he’s got his head in the right place at the moment.

After what the team’s been through at the start of this year they badly need some publicity for the right reasons, and it should be up to their champion to lead by example.