Adam Yates has vowed to keep fighting for a place on the Tour de France podium but insists it will be "no stress" if his challenge falls apart.
The 23-year-old Briton slipped from 47 seconds adrift of the yellow jersey to 2min 45sec down after losing 1min 58sec to race leader Chris Froome on stage 13's individual time trial.
He has also been relegated to third place in the general classification by Bauke Mollema, while two-time Tour runner-up Nairo Quintana is only 14 seconds behind in fourth.
Yates, who remains top of the best young rider classification, said: "The position we are in now, we just have to keep fighting. We have one week go to and in every stage, where there's an opportunity, I'll just try to take some seconds back. Hopefully everything goes OK.
"I'm still on the podium; that's where I wanted to be after the TT. Every day we will keep fighting, then whatever happens, happens.
"If it works, it works. If not, no pressure or stress. Every day we are learning."
Yates is a light climbing specialist and his lack of time-trialling pedigree was exposed on stage 13 by a 37.5km course that was buffeted by crosswinds.
"It was a dangerous stage, but I felt good uphill," he added. "I suffered more on the flat because of the wind.
"Time-trialling isn't my forte, so I expected to lose more time to the favourites. It didn't go badly."
The Tour continues on Saturday with a mostly flat 208.5km 14th stage from Montelimar to Villars-les-Dombes. Find out more about the stage in our race guide and follow the action with our live blog from 1pm BST.