As Romain Bardet well knows, a minute and a half can feel like an eternity in the modern Tour de France, and while AG2R La Mondiale's Bardet entered his first rest day in fourth place overall and just 30 seconds behind the overall leader, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) downplayed the possibility of taking the yellow jersey.

"Thirty seconds is a lot," Bardet told reporters at Zoom Call on Monday afternoon. 'It would take a miracle to beat Roglic by 30 seconds .......'

Bardet spoke from experience. He spent most of the 2017 Tour de France less than 20 seconds behind Chris Froome, then with Team Sky, but it was hard to shake off the feeling that he was being distanced by the strongest rider (and team) in the race. In the final time trial in Marseille, Bardet's gap ballooned to 2:20.

Bardet, on the other hand, may benefit from considerably more freedom of movement this Tour de France than in 2017, when he departed from Dusseldorf as one of the pre-race favorites to win and was marked by Froome and Team Sky. After the disappointment of last year's 15th place - "I don't know if you can call it a failure, but it wasn't even close to what I wanted" - Bardet starts the 2020 Tour without the same burden of expectations.

With the fall of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Julien Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Bardet, along with Guillaume Martin (Cofidis Solutions Credits), is carrying French expectations, but log In a race where Rich's biggest concerns seem to be Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), he remains the outsider for the overall win.

"I'm lucky that he [Roglic] is not the one I pay most attention to," Bardet admitted. 'Of course I don't expect him to give me a lot of space, but I'm not going to jump on me, how I can use my legs and step up there when there are only four or five men left.' But right now, Roglic is dominating the race.

"When I was 11 seconds behind it was possible, but yesterday I threw away my chance. As for the jersey, it's going to be complicated."

The rescheduled 2020 Tour de France has been a novel kind of race so far. While the first summit finishes in Orcières-Merrette and Mont-Egoual did not create much of a gap between the major contenders, the race in the Pyrenees was a race in which the yellow jersey group was split by accelerations on the Peyresourde pass on Saturday and the Marie-Blanc pass 24 hours later The race in the Pyrenees was completely out of control, with acceleration on Saturday's Peyresourde pass and the Marie-Blanc pass 24 hours later splitting the yellow jersey group. Bardet admitted that the pace was very high at the head of the Pyrenees.

"I think I am taking part in the highest level Tour of my career," he said. 'I'm performing like I never have in the past. I'm breaking records, my form is very good, and with one or two exceptions, all the top guys are here. It's a really high level race and I like that kind of competition."

Bardet's power meter readings suggest that he has surpassed his 2016 and 2017 showings, but he accepts that his performance may not pay off as highly in Paris on September 20.

"The race is being run faster than before," he said. Every time I climb a col I'm breaking the climbing record, but I have to believe in myself and keep working hard." The team will feel weaker than the Dauphiné, so we need to remain confident and optimistic. 0]

Other than the time bonus, the time difference Bardet has on Roglic in this Tour is only 11 seconds--all on Sunday's Larns stage, where Bardet finished alongside Martin and Nairo Quintana (Team Arkea Samsic)--but Bardet, who is the yellow jersey Roglic and Pogachar, also of Slovenia, were the two strongest in the race at the moment. Bardet will need to be inventive if he is to improve his times in the coming days.

"At the moment, Roglic and Pogachar in particular are a step ahead of the rest of the field. 'I don't know if this reality will continue for the next two weeks, but for now it is what it is. There were stronger players than me last year and the year before. So I have to accept that, be realistic about my level, and be sure of what I can do."

Bardet will compete in his last Tour with AG2R La Mondiale before moving to Team Sunweb in 2021. The move appears to have been sparked by soul-searching following his disappointment at last year's Tour, and he had originally planned to skip the 2020 Grand Boucle altogether, but a coronavirus pandemic forced him to rethink his plans.

Still, Bardet initially said he would aim for stage wins rather than overall victories, and unlike in recent years, AG2R's Tour selection was not built around Bardet. The team won a stage with Nance Peters on Saturday and holds the polka-dot jersey with Benoit Cosnefrois, but manager Vincent Lavenu said "everything is possible" for Bardet.

"A player who has reached a certain level before can reach that level again," he said. Romain has achieved second and third place." Romain has been second and third before.