Nibali in control; Sky split team leadership; Hesjedal loses over 20 minutes

It was a sad sight for Canadian cycling fans watching Ryder Hesjedal trudge over the finish line today with his hopes of retaining his Giro gone in the wind of his rivals some twenty minutes further up the road. In what was the first foray into the mountains, Hesjedal blew to pieces while Nibali gained more time on the others and Rigoberto Uran Uran (he's Hungary Like the Wolf!) took Hesjedal's place as one of the overall contenders.

It's hard to know what's up with Hesjedal because he looked strong in the first week of the race right up until the time-trial on the weekend. I can only assume he's picked up some kind of a bug or that he simply just doesn't quite have the form he hoped he might. Or maybe he's the only one riding clean!

According to his team he'll spend tonight considering his options ... either to stay in the race and work for a stage win, or to go home in search of his form ahead of the Tour de France. I hope he goes with the former but would certainly understand his decision to go with the later. Hesjedal is a man of great pride and quitting the race he won just twelve months earlier won't come easy.



20 minutes and 53 seconds was the exact time lost by Hesjedal on the stage won by Sky's Uran. The Colombian attacked on the final climb as part of a tactic by Sky to try and split their GC contentions between two riders making it even harder for Nibali who so far has looked very much at ease.

By attacking Uran forced the hand of Nibali's Astana team to take up the chase. In doing so it left Sky with the option of Wiggins counter attacking should Uran be reeled in. As it turned out however, Wiggins cracked a little himself on the steepest part of the climb and Sky will be glad Uran stayed away, albeit only by 31 seconds over Nibali on the line. Wiggins lost 37 seconds to the Pink jersey.

So, are Sky all behind Uran now or will they continue to run with split leadership? Well, given that Wiggins is still only 2 minutes, 5 seconds behind Nibali overall -- and more importantly, just one second behind Uran -- with all the major climbs still to come, it would be unfair to rule him out of contention yet. He may not quite have the form he hoped he would but that isn't to say it won't arrive over the next ten days or so. If it does then he could yet be a threat and himself and Uran can take the fight to Astana.

And let's not rule out Cadel Evans either. He's just 41 seconds down on GC after fighting back to regain contact with Nibali and then clinging onto his coat tails over the final kilometre to finish with the same time.

Hesjedal may be gone, but Uran is now in the mix and this Giro is stll wide open despite how comfortable Nibali looks. They only need look at how quickly Hesjedal fell apart to understand that any one of them could crack themselves and as such the pressure must remain high.