Bradley Wiggins believes that defending Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas needs to be aware that a potential battle with teammate Egan Bernal could be looming.
Talking on the Bradley Wiggins Show, the 2012 Tour winner highlighted young Colombian rider Bernal as the in-form rider and that Team Ineos must consider all of its options, especially on the race's first mountain day this Thursday.
'They can't be deluded, they have to be realistic, they have to ride to their strengths, and you'd say the man in form at the moment is Bernal,' said Wiggins.
'Geraint certainly for one minute wouldn't say given the choice "do you want Bernal to sacrifice himself for you on the Plance des Belle Filles on Thursday?"
'Geraint would probably be the first to say "not so sure you should do that just in case" - because that adds extra pressure to Geraint. So, it's not a bad thing to be going along for the next couple of weeks as a kind of joint leadership.'
While Wiggins believes Bernal is the rider to watch, he also highlighted Thomas' performance in yesterday's team time trial although admitted this may not be a sign that the Welshman is back hitting the form that led him to last year's win.
'He looked great in the team time trial today but Geraint can float round in a team time trial and make it look easy so it's not exactly a great indicator as to whether this guy can win the Tour or not,' said Wiggins.
'But Thursday, definitely. It's going to be interesting to see how they play that with Bernal and G. How they run at La Planche des Belle Filles in the final there.'
The first true shake-up in the General Classification is expected to take place on the Plance des Belle Filles on Stage 6 this Thursday.
The 7km climb averages 8.7% but will offer a new test from previous years thanks to the climb being extended to add in a new section that reaches 24%.
Wiggins believes that this will be the first real barometer, barring a crash, that Team Ineos will be able to use in their decision to back for the overall race win.
'It will give us an indicator as to who they are going to sacrifice early doors. We've got Wout Poels haven't we... they've got an amazing team. I can't wait to see it really,' said Wiggins.
'I think if they both get there on zero time to each other as it were, no time losses, no more crashes in the next few days. Then it's going to be a really interesting couple of weeks.'