The Giro d'Italia reached the mid-way point with the stages in the Veneto region to Asolo and Bibione but a whole different race will begin on Friday when the Corsa Rosa heads into the little-know Giulie or Julian Alps for stage 13 to Cividale del Friuli, followed by breath stage in the Dolomites and then the intense 10.8km mountain time trial from Castelrotto to Alpe di Siusi.
Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) will try to defend his pink jersey, push himself to new limits and reveal his true potential as a future Grand Tour rider on Friday, during the 170km of racing and over the four categorised climbs. At the same time we will finally see a major face off between Vincenzo Nibali and Alejandro Valverde and their respective Astana and Movistar super teams and teammates Jakob Fuglsang and Andrey Amador –who is in line to inherit the pink jersey if Jungels struggles.
Grand Tours are fascinating for their multifaceted storylines and the stage from the stunning Palmanova fortress to Cividale del Friuli will also reveal how strong and competitive Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) really are.
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Up to now, the reality is that there are seven or eight riders in the same condition and it's all very even," Movistar manager Eusebio Unzue told Cyclingnews, echoing the thoughts of everyone at the race.
"There isn't a big difference between them. I think it's very even and it's very interesting. This weekend might start to show us who is really prepared, who is a real contender, then the big days that follow in Risoul and Vinadio are where the Giro will be decided. It's very exciting. Chaves, Nibali, Fuglsang, Majka, Uran, Zakarin and so on are all there. They are men capable of everything. And when you've got young riders in the mix, that are still developing and can improve a lot from one year to the next, lots of things can happen. We'll have to be mindful of that, one of them could be the big surprise, the Landa of this year."
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