Carcassonne, France: Jean-Christophe Peraud admitted he had not even ridden the three tough Pyrenean stages at the Tour de France in advance because he didn’t expect to be competing for a podium.

The 37-year-old French rider has unexpectedly found himself in sixth place overall and only 1 min 18 sec off a podium position with less than a week to go.

The veteran AG2R rider is enjoying a surprise Indian summer to his career as he largely flies under the radar, with most of the attention focused on runaway race leader Vincenzo Nibali and young French hopes Romain Bardet, his teammate, and Thibaut Pinot.

But now that he finds himself in the thick of the battle for a top finish, Peraud is regretting not having studied the three Pyrenean stages more closely.

Asked if he knew any of the climbs he would scale from Tuesday to Thursday, Peraud replied: “No, not at all. I’ve never done the Hautacam because I didn’t have enough time.

“We’ve had a very busy season and I’m a father. I regret that a little bit. I didn’t expect to be at this level.”

Asked where he’d expected to be at this time, Peraud alluded to the withdrawal of favourites Chris Froome and Alberto Contador through injury earlier in the race.

“I expected there would two more ahead of me for starters,” he added.

But that’s not to say Peraud, whose best previous finish was ninth in 2011, didn’t come into the race with ambitions.

“The aim was fifth place but now there’s perhaps room to do better.”

One who can hardly do any better is Italian Nibali, who led second-placed Alejandro Valverde by 4:37 going into Tuesday’s stage. Even so, he said he and his Astana teammates will need to take care.

“The week that’s coming is very important, the best thing will be to keep our concentration because there will be difficulties,” said the 29-year-old Italian.

“We must be wary of breakaways because there will be people who are now a long way back in the standings who could get into a dangerous breakaway, so it could become difficult to manage the race and the support of the team will be very important.”