Tom Dumoulin believes his Tour de France hopes could rest on a Geraint Thomas collapse as he ponders how to attack the remainder of the race.
Team Sky's Thomas leads the general classification after 15 stages, one minute and 39 seconds clear of team-mate and defending champion Chris Froome, with Team Sunweb's Dumoulin 11 seconds further back in third.
But the Dutchman is not yet giving up hope after the first Grand Tour of the year saw Simon Yates let a comfortable lead slip in the final week of the Giro d'Italia.
"[Thomas] has a big lead over Froome and I and seems very strong so far," Dumoulin told a news conference.
"But I did not expect that Simon Yates would fall through the ice in the last week of the Giro ... and that happened.
"I have to wait and hope for a bad day for Thomas, because, at the moment, the gap is too big to him to close in the time trial."
Dumoulin acknowledges he finds himself in a strange position as he waits to see how Froome will approach the final stages behind his team-mate, despite the Kenya-born Briton stating he will offer Thomas support.
"It is a good question whether that is an advantage or a disadvantage for me," he said. "It is certainly different. I've never experienced this before.
"I do not know what the guys from Sky are going to do and I do not know what I'm going to do in the coming days.
"I'll have to keep thinking about all possible scenarios during the race and, normally, that's one of my strengths."
