Why does this Angular Validation Directive appear async?

I wanted to use template forms and [min] and [max] directives, so I have created them and they work. But the test confuses me: validation is not executed asynchronously, yet after changing my values and stuff, I have to go through this:

component.makeSomeChangeThatInvalidatesMyInput();
// control.invalid = false, expected

fixture.detectChanges();
// control.invalid is still false, not expected

// but if I go do this
fixture.whenStable().then(() => {
  // control.invalid is STILL false, not expected
  fixture.detectChanges();
  // control.invalid now true
  // expect(... .errors ... ) now passes
})

I don't understand why would I need even that whenStable(), let alone another detectChanges() cycle. What am I missing here? Why do I need 2 cycles of change detection for this validation to be executed?

Doesn't matter if I run the test as async or not.

Here's my test:

@Component({
    selector: 'test-cmp',
    template: `<form>
        <input [max]="maxValue" [(ngModel)]="numValue" name="numValue" #val="ngModel">
        <span class="error" *ngIf="val.invalid">Errors there.</span>
    </form>`
})
class TestMaxDirectiveComponent {
    maxValue: number;
    numValue: number;
}
fdescribe('ValidateMaxDirective', () => {
    let fixture: ComponentFixture<TestMaxDirectiveComponent>;
    let component: TestMaxDirectiveComponent;

    beforeEach(async(() => TestBed.configureTestingModule({
        imports: [FormsModule],
        declarations: [TestMaxDirectiveComponent, ValidateMaxDirective],
    }).compileComponents()
        .then(() => {
            fixture = TestBed.createComponent(TestMaxDirectiveComponent);
            component = fixture.componentInstance;
            return fixture.detectChanges();
        })
    ));
    fit('should have errors even when value is greater than maxValue', async(() => {
        component.numValue = 42;
        component.maxValue = 2;
        fixture.detectChanges();
        fixture.whenStable().then(() => {
            fixture.detectChanges();
            expect(fixture.nativeElement.querySelector('.error')).toBeTruthy();
        });
    }));
});

And here's the directive itself (simplified a bit):

const VALIDATE_MAX_PROVIDER = {
    provide: NG_VALIDATORS, useExisting: forwardRef(() => ValidateMaxDirective), multi: true,
};
@Directive({
    selector: '[max][ngModel]',
    providers: [VALIDATE_MAX_PROVIDER],
})
export class ValidateMaxDirective implements Validator {
    private _max: number | string;
    @Input() get max(): number | string {
        return this._max;
    }
    set max(value: number | string) {
        this._max = value;
    }

    validate(control: AbstractControl): ValidationErrors | null {
        if (isEmptyInputValue(control.value) || isEmptyInputValue(this._max)) {
            return null;  // don't validate empty values to allow optional controls
        }
        const value = parseFloat(control.value);
        return !isNaN(value) && value > this._max ? {'max': {'max': this._max, 'actual': control.value}} : null;
    }
}

I have tested this on a brand new ng new app with @angular/cli version 1.6.8 and latest angular 5.2.