There could have been five Tour de France winners lining up at the start in Leeds on Saturday but, instead, there will be three and one is unlikely to even finish in the top 20.
It is a measure of how the fortunes of those who have reached cycling's summit can change so quickly.
The official record books show the champions from 2010-12 were Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins, yet none has the slightest chance of riding into Paris on July 27 wearing yellow.
For the latter two, they simply haven't been selected by their teams.
In the case of Australian Evans, he is no longer able to compete over a three-week Grand Tour and was shifted from the Tour team to the Giro d'Italia by BMC this year.
Defending his Tour crown in 2012, he finished seventh, upstaged by his young support rider Tejay Van Garderen, who came fifth.
Evans wouldn't give up, though, and was joint leader with the American in 2013 but slumped to a 39th-placed finish, although Van Garderen's own 45th final position completed a miserable Tour for BMC.
At 37, Evans is no longer able to maintain his form through to a major tour's last week, as he showed at the Giro in May, wearing pink for four stages but cracking on the tough climbs of the final week to end up eighth.
So to Wiggins, who only two years ago made history by becoming the first Briton to win the world's biggest, greatest and most famous cycle race.
He followed that up with Olympic timetrial gold, his fourth Games title following three on the track.
Last year, he missed the Tour through a knee injury but, this time, he has simply been judged not good enough by Team Sky.
Or perhaps it's not a case of being not good enough, after winning the Tour of California and finishing ninth at Paris-Roubaix.
But the potential for a personality clash with reigning champion and undisputed team leader Chris Froome, as well as possible conflicts of interest and Wiggins' media, or rather headline-friendly mood swings, ensured the popular 34-year-old was very much dispensable.
As for Schleck, the problem is very different and considerably more mystifying.
He finished second in the Tour three years in a row from 2009-11, eventually being awarded the 2010 victory after Alberto Contador was stripped of his win for doping.
Yet Schleck crashed at the 2012 Criterium du Dauphine, breaking a bone in his lower back, and missed the Tour that year while his brother Frank, with whom he is especially close, subsequently was given a one-year doping ban.
Share
