It was only a few days ago that Mikel Landa, distanced by his rivals twice in the space of three days, admitted to “not feeling great” at the Giro d’Italia. Pessimism, however, has made way for optimism, in the most unlikely way.
The Spaniard, a notoriously weak time triallist who lost three minutes to the favourites against the clock last year, was widely expected to take a considerable hit on the 40.5km stage 9 time trial along the rolling, twisty roads of Chianti. However, he performed better than anyone could have expected, finishing within seven seconds of Vincenzo Nibali and ahead of pretty much every other true GC contender.
Now, instead of leaving himself with ground to make up in the mountains, he finds himself eighth overall and less than half a minute back on Nibali - probably the reference point of this Giro.
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"I thought that after the time trial there might be some bigger time differences between the favourites. But if you look at the GC, we're all really close together,” Landa said in an interview on the Team Sky website.
“Right now I'm in a better position than I expected and I have to be happy, because now the best part of the Giro begins for me. "I'm really optimistic for the next group of stages. It's going to be a beautiful race. The top 10 is really strong and it's going to be a great fight.”
Sky, the spiritual home of marginal gains, identified Landa’s time trialling as a key area to work on and duly subjected the 26-year-old to intensive off-season work in the wind tunnel and on the track. His start to the season was even delayed to allow him extra time to work on his position.
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