The veteran Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde said on Monday he has not given up hope of winning the Tour de France despite Vincenzo Nibali's commanding lead.
Nibali's dominance, particularly in uphill finishes, has left Valverde second, four minutes and 37 seconds behind but locked in a five-way battle for a podium place.
During a rest day in the southern French city of Carcassonne, the Movistar rider, 34, denied his focus is holding onto second.
“Until now he’s shown he’s the best rider in the Tour,” Valverde said of Nibali.
“Now, though, we’re going into the Pyrenees and the third week of the Tour, so tiredness can be a factor. He’s a human being and anybody can get tired and have problems. It’s always possible to have a bad day and, if he does, we’ll try to capitalise.
“But he’s shown he’s very strong and better than the other riders, although we won’t give up and we’ll try to make the most of it if such a situation arises.”
The Movistar manager Eusebio Unzue insisted the team would not accept defeat to the Italian. “It will be very difficult to beat Nibali because he’s shown he’s superior to the others,” he said.
“But in the five riders behind there is a real desire to progress and they’re going to go on the attack and do something to gain places. We’ve seen that Nibali has been very strong so far, but now there are three Pyrenean stages and we’ll make it tougher so it’s not so easy for him.”
Tejay van Garderen, the American in fifth place, believes he can win the Tour de France but concedes he will have to wait at least another year.
The BMC leader is part of the five-man battle for second and third. He is 5:49 behind Nibali, but the second-through-sixth places are separated by only 1:31.
Van Garderen, 25, says his performance this year has proved he belongs at the highest level.
“That’s something that I’ve known all along but other people might have doubted,” he said. “But I’m not going to be satisfied until we get to Paris and I’m in a good position.”
Van Garderen was a surprise fifth at the Tour in 2012 when riding as a domestique for the defending champion Cadel Evans, who came home in seventh.
But Van Garderen disappointed last year, when expectations were higher, slumping to 45th.
“My goal is to one year win this race,” he said. “That might be a bit lofty an expectation for this year, but years down the road, that’s something I think I can do.
“Last year was the hardest tour I’ve ever done, to come in there and to have lost everything so early,” he said.
“When you’re struggling mentally, like I was last year, three weeks felt like seven weeks.”
He said his 2012 result “was special but an unexpected thing”.
“Now I’m somewhere in the middle,” he added. “I have this pressure because I wanted to perform, but we’re mentally strong because we’re sitting in a good place.”
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