Tejay van Garderen (BMC) has gradually moved from outsider to potential winner of the Tour de France and goes into the second week in second overall, just 12 seconds behind Chris Froome.

Going into the race he was aiming at the podium but now he aims higher and refuses to sign for second place.

“Right now if you put it on the table, I would say no,” he said in his rest day press conference. “I value more the process of how it happens. I would rather live through the process of getting 5th place and knowing I’d given 100 percent rather than signing a piece of paper guaranteeing me second place.

“Right now I feel we’re riding this Tour the same way that Cadel rode in 2011, we’ve got strong guys on the front in the first week making sure we’re ahead of any splits. We wanted to end first week a step ahead, not a step behind and it’s gone perfectly. We’ve taken that mould and applied it to this Tour de France and so far it’s working out very well.

“I don’t think my strength is going to be flying up the road and dropping people like Quintana and Contador, my strength is going to be my consistency. I’m realistic that way. In the Pyrenees I’m going to have to mark the guys who are important and take the opportunity if it’s there, but we’ll let the other guys wear each other down because the real race will happen in the third week. It’s not a sprint race, it’s a marathon and it’s going to be won either on La Toussuire or on Alpe d’Huez.”

“The Pyrenees is where the race is really going to start. Up to now we’ve been able to hide a little bit in the peloton and use mostly our teams to be up there, but now it’s coming to a time where we can’t hide behind our teams, we have to do it on our own. But I feel ready for it.”