Cadel Evans has two days in which to relaunch his yellow jersey bid but he seems almost resigned to missing out in the face of the formidable Sky team of race leader Bradley Wiggins.

“Sky have just shown their strength, they’ve really all come on firing. They have eight riders here and seven of them riding on the front have been incredible,” said the Australian.

With five stages remaining, optimists would suggest Evans – Australia’s first winner of the race in 2011 – has both the time and the opportunity to turn around the 3min 19sec deficit that has left him in fourth place.

But in reality that task appears complex.

Only two mountain stages remain and only one, stage 17 tomorrow, has a mountain-top finish that would likely give Evans and third-placed Italian rival Vincenzo Nibali a decent chance of closing their deficits.

Nibali is currently 2:23 behind Wiggins in third, 18 seconds behind the Londoner’s team-mate Chris Froome.

Despite losing Belarusian all-rounder Kanstantsin Sivtsov to injury in the first week, Sky’s pace-setting in the mountains has proved deadly for their rivals.

After Australians Michael Rogers and Richie Porte have driven the pace early on, Evans, Nibali and other rivals are usually left with little to give by the time they are left with Wiggins and Froome in the finale.

Evans bravely attacked Sky on stage 11 to La Toussuire but, 60 km from home, he was soon brought to heel and went on to lose a further 1:26 to Wiggins during a dramatic finale that saw Froome controversially attack his leader.

“In retrospect, it wasn’t a successful move, but you don’t want to get to Paris thinking I should’ve done something more,” said Evans.

During a rest day yesterday Evans said it’s not getting any easier.

“It seems like their riders have all come on the best form of their lives,” he noted.

“They ride a continuous tempo that’s leaving the climbers pretty empty when they get to the final. It’s making it difficult to do stuff.”

The race resumes today when the peloton tackles a series of major climbs – the Col d’Aubisque, the Col du Tourmalet, the Col d’Aspin and the Col de Peyresourde – on the way to a downhill finish in Bagneres-de-Luchon.

Top 10 riders

(after 15 stages of the Tour)

1. B. Wiggins (GBR) - 68h33m21s
2. C. Froome (GBR) at 2m05s
3. V. Nibali (ITA) - 2:23
4. C. Evans (AUS) - 3:19
5. J. Van den Broeck (BEL) - 4:48
6. H. Zubeldia (ESP) - 6:15
7. T. Van Garderen (USA) - 6:57
8. J. Brajkovic (SLO) - 7:30
9. P. Rolland (FRA) - 8:31
10. T. Pinot (FRA) - 8:51