Even though the main Tour de France title contender, Chris Froome, won the opening prologue of the Criterium du Dauphine in a commending style, putting eight minutes on the second rider and his closest rival Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) on a barely 10 kilometer-long course, his splendid performance was not what interested cycling journalists most.

Following few mandatory questions concerning his performance at the Criterium du Dauphine opening prologue, journalists gathered in the post-stage press conference quickly changed topic to hotly commented Team Sky roster for the Tour de France, supposedly without Sir Bradley Wiggins on board.

It’s hard to deny that Froome personally added fuel to the discussion about his controversial relationship with Wiggins within the British team by publishing his autobiography, broadly commenting on happenings from 2012 edition of the Tour, just a month before the French grand tour kicks off in Great Britain. However, the 29-year old Kenyan-born rider consequently sticked to his preferred dull image, suggesting that decisions concerning team’s squad for upcoming events are beneath riders’ authority and that he’d rather focus on winning the Criterium du Dauphine first.

“For now my focus is on the Dauphine and getting through that as best as I can. His [Wiggins’] focus is on the Tour de Suisse but the Tour de France team has definitely not been selected. It’s not something that’s going to be selected between the riders. It’s a management decision as to what’s the best team going into the Tour,” Froome said.

“Again, my focus is on the Dauphine. We can talk about the Tour afterwards,” Froome answered while asked very directly whether he wanted Wiggins in his Tour de France team.

Even though it wasn’t a huge surprise to cycling enthusiasts that main Tour de France contenders fought for a victory in the opening Criterium de Dauphine prologue, Froome was as shoked as he usually does to ride himself into the yellow jersey. The 29-year old Briton also, very rightly, praised his team mates, who all performed very well during yesterday’s stage.

“I don’t know how much we can take away from a ten kilometre prologue but it’s definitely a bit of a surprise to be in the yellow jersey,” Froome said of his performance.

“I wasn’t really expecting to win the race. It’s a really good result for us and it confirms that I’m in condition and looking at my teammates they’ve ridden well too. It goes to show that we have a strong team here,” he added. 

Keeping yellow for an entire week is certainly an option Team Sky may entertain.

“It’s hard to say. I didn’t expect to be in yellow after today but it’s a great position to be in as I don’t have to make up time on my main GC rivals. I think we’re going to have to sit down tonight and work out the best way forward but it’s going to be a hard-week of racing.”