Race leader Chris Froome has predicted this year’s Tour de France will be won and lost in the final week in the Alps after reaching the first rest day only narrowly ahead of his closest rivals.
Froome holds leads of 16 seconds over second-placed Adam Yates and 19 seconds over third-placed Dan Martin with nine stages completed, while fourth-placed Nairo Quintana is only 23 seconds back and fifth-placed Joaquim Rodriguez just 37 seconds down.
The race for the yellow jersey is far tighter than at this point in Froome's previous Tour wins, having led Quintana by 2min 2sec at the first rest day in 2013 and 1min 59sec last year.
A summit finish on Mont Ventoux on stage 12 and a 37.5km individual time trial on stage 13 are likely to expand the gaps, but Froome believes the winner of the yellow jersey will not be decided until four successive days in the Alps from stages 17-20.
Speaking at Team Sky's rest-day press conference, Froome said: "There are going to be several quite decisive stages in the Tour, especially the time trial, which will be pivotal.
"Also looking to those last stages, 17, 18, 19 and 20, that is where the race will be won and lost.
"I made it my personal mission to come into this race a little bit fresher with the hope that I will have more in the third week than I had in the past. Let's see. It's a week away and we have still got two more weeks of racing now. Let's see what happens."
Although Quintana is still in the hunt, the other pre-race favourites for victory all fell out of contention in the opening week.
Richie Porte is 2min 20sec adrift after a puncture on stage two, Fabio Aru is 1min 23sec down after being dropped on stage nine, and Alberto Contador has already quit the race through illness.
In their place, Yates and Martin have emerged as surprise candidates for places on the podium and Froome expects them to last the course.
He added: "I think that they have already shown themselves as contenders.
"If they can do what they have done in the first half again, then they will be on the podium come Paris.
"There is no reason why they shouldn't be up there, but three weeks is a long time. But so far, they have not shown any weakness."
The Tour resumes on Tuesday with a 197km 10th stage from Escaldes Engordany to Revel. Find out more about the route in our race guide and follow the stage live with our live blog from 1pm BST.