Spain's Carlos Rodriguez, currently third in the overall Tour de France standings, showed no signs of waning under pressure on Monday's rest day, promising that he will not rest on his laurels as a professional rider for Ineos Grenadiers.

"If I have good legs, I will attack," the Spaniard commented on the second rest day of the Tour.

Rodriguez is running 5:21 behind race leaders Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) and Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) from the two yellow contenders in Paris, just 19 seconds behind fourth place Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates). difference, while fifth-placed Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) has been steadily reducing his time due to injury, and a superficial look at the results sheet suggests that Yates is the main rival for the podium. [However, the situation is not as straightforward as it seems. Yates and the UAE, along with Tadej Pogachar, are both in the hunt for the overall win, and Yates' options for fighting for third place in Paris will be limited, at least while Pogachar remains in contention for the win.

Rodriguez and Ineos Grenadier, meanwhile, have his GC finish as almost their only goal in the final week of the Tour. Rodriguez seems more focused on racing his own race for now, rather than paying too much attention to Yates and the overall battle.

"I'm fine for now. I'm aware that I'm a little tired because I've been racing hard the last few days. But today I want to recover and get stronger for the future," Rodriguez said.

"I'm doing the best I can and I want to keep this up, stay focused, and keep my feet on the ground.

"In the race here, I'm not really aware of the impact this will have on the media back home. I just noticed it from the media here

"During the race I am suffering a lot. I try to enjoy every moment, to see people cheering for me."

Despite a different overall profile, Rodriguez finished 25th in the equally hilly 31km Criterium du Dauphiné time trial, 57 seconds behind eighth-place Adam Yates.

"It will be a good reference to gauge my effort," Rodriguez said. After the Dauphiné, I checked out the time trial here. It's very hard. I don't know if it's good for me or bad for me, but hopefully it's the former.

Rodriguez said, "It's totally different from the Dauphiné. I know what kind of pace I can set, but it's my legs that actually decide. As a rule, I don't change bikes in the middle of the course."

Rodriguez added, "I'm not going to change bikes in the middle of the course.

Rodriguez is currently third overall and would be Spain's first Tour de France podium since Alejandro Valverde in 2015. But while that was a high-water mark for the Spanish veteran, the 22-year-old Rodriguez's result puts him in a very different place.

As for his main rival to become Spain's first Tour podium finisher, he said, "It's impossible to identify. It's impossible to know. Hindley's third place is kind of a given, and he's running in fifth place right now. On Tuesday evening, he could be running 10th overall."

"I'll keep putting my best self out there and fight with the guys next to me on GC."

"I'm learning things every day. When I look back after this race I will know what I did well and what I could have done better and I will learn from that. But I don't feel any pressure." Rodriguez said he is using his experience at the 2022 Vuelta, both positive and negative, to gain perspective on how he views the Tour.

"After my terrible crash at the Vuelta last year, I felt very different, like I wasn't myself. It took me a long time to recover from the injury and by the third week I was "out of it." I've learned not to push myself too hard. 0]

Looking ahead, Rodriguez insisted that his best mountain stage would be Courchevel on Wednesday. "This climb is very long and comes directly after the hard Roset pass. If I have good legs, I will attack."

Rodriguez had already done a short dig on Sunday, which he described as a "semi-attack." After the roundabout, we had some distance to cover, so we decided to keep going. I always like to attack. But with two guys in front of me on GC and a team so strong, it's hard to make an impact without shooting myself in the foot."