Yeah, definitely. I'm pleasantly surprised with how Evans is going. Nibali has to be the favourite currently, but Evans is with a shot. The back half of the Giro is very very hard, much harder than the TdF, but then that's the Giro for you. One off day for any rider could open things right up.
Last stage saw Hesjedal lose previous time, and Wiggins struggled again on the descents. Interestingly, Sky have now let their Columbians (Henao and Uran) by free men, whilst the rest of Sky tried to get Wiggins back on - which meant that Wiggins had to pretty much get himself back on.
Evans looked good tucked in behind Nibali. His team mates Santaromita and Morabito struggled, but held on. That's promising I think - this team that Evans has actually isn't too bad if Santaromita, Morabito and Cummings all can hold on when Evans needs help. The big shame is that Pinotti wasn't ready to also ride the Giro after his injuries.
Tonight is a rest today.
The second real test (after the first TT) will be on Tuesday night our time.
Here's what will the riders will be digesting Tuesday night our time:
Those two climbs are nasty, long things. Here's the first:
14.5k, but 2k of descents. A nasty 3k of over 10% at the start, then it eases off into a descent, followed by another 5km at over 10%. A nice first up offering, but it likely won't be ridden too hard.
And the next 22km behemoth:
The first 11km are little more than a false flat at 2.5%, but it starts to kick up. The key test will be at about 3.5km to go, where it kicks up again, reaching gradients up to 20%. If anyone of the key GC guys are going to make a move on this stage, it will likely be in this section.
What will most likely happen is that climbers who have already lost time like Di Luca, Samuel Sanchez, Duarte, maybe even Pozzovivo, will attack halfway and be given some lattitude by the GC guys who will mark each other, which means that one of these guys will take the stage. Alternatively, Astana may want to get rid of the pink jersey this early on in the Giro and let a breakaway go and get a huge lead. However, it would have to be a semi-decent climber as the next stage finishes up a Cat 2 climb, so more likely Astana will try to lose the Maglia Rosa the following day on stage 11, rather than stage 10.
Hopefully we don't have to endure the Sky train chugging to the top and we get to see a showdown between some GC guys.