Sky taken out while it's advantage Quintana...or is it?

It took eight stages for this Giro to come to life, but once it did, it did so in the most dramatic of ways. Drama, controversy, action, time gaps, lead change and so many talking points it is hard to know where to begin. Do I start with the stage winner and new race leader, Nairo Quintana? Or the fact his win wasn't as convincing as expected? Or with the motorbike induced accident at the foot of the Blockhaus climb that left several contenders on the deck, decimating Team Sky's Giro ambitions?

The later is the logical starting point. It was after all the most dramatic moment, the one that raised the most debate, and the one that came first. Why the police motorbike felt the need to stop at the side of the road I'm not sure, but why he didn't pull off the road I'll never know. The result was Wilko Kelderman of the Sunweb team clipped the motorbike rider and went down taking many riders with him.

When the dust cleared, Geraint Thomas and Mikel Landa were both a part of the rubble as the race moved up the road and with it their Giro aspirations. Debate began to rage almost immediately about the rights and wrongs of the incident as well as the reaction of Movistar. Nairo Quintana's team continued to push on the front while many felt they should have waited. I am not one of those many. If this happened 100km from the finish it might be one thing, but it was at the foot of the final climb. If they had been hiding in the pack all day but reacted to this crash by pushing to the front, that would be another thing. The reality was that Movistar had been pushing on the front for quite a while before the crash. Their strategy was well underway and their reward for being at the front was staying clear of any potential crash, regardless of who was to blame. How many rivals were beginning to hurt at the pressure they had been putting on? By easing off, those riders would have gotten a chance to recover. Indeed, had they waited and had the Thomas, Landa, Kelderman and Adam Yates got back on, would they have been able to compete given the hard falls they took? Landa looked hurt and lost a load of time. There was no guarantee the others could go with the move Quintana later forced. The race was on as Movistar suggested after the race and even Thomas admitted to this himself.

So yes, Quintana did force a move but to which only Thibaut Pinot and Vincenzo Nibali could react. A short way behind the Dutch duo of Tom Dumoulin and Bauke Mollema stuck to their own rhythm. Nibali soon cracked and when Quintana surged again he got rid of Pinot.

It seemed here that Quintana would go on to win the Giro. Seconds would turn into minutes and he would build the kind of gap that no time-trial could threaten. I feared for the rest. But behind Dumoulin kept ticking over. Soon he caught and dropped Nibali and then he rode up to Pinot. The Dutchman didn't panic when he seen the attacks...he knew he couldn't go with them. Instead he played the Chris Froome tactic and rode to his own power numbers. Say what you like about these devices being in races, they all have one. And while they're allowed it's the smart rider who knows how to interpret the data in real time. It's the patient rider who doesn't see the wheel in front distance him and panic by trying to go with it. Instead Dumoulin got into time-trial mode, his best mode, and set about limiting the damage.

And limit it he did. Yes, Quintana won the stage and took a 10 second time bonus with it, but Pinot and Dumoulin came home next only 24 seconds behind. Mollema was at 41 seconds; Nibali at a minute. All will feel they limited their losses well. Quintana will feel a level of confidence in getting the win, but the lack of time put into those behind him will also inspire those rivals.

Tomorrow is a rest day but Tuesday's time trial should see Quintana cough up his advantage from today and then some. Still, Quintana is playing the longer gain. His hope will be to limit his loses as Dumoulin did today, though his target loss will likely be more than 24 seconds, and then bite back in the high mountains. There is a lot of climbing to come and Quintana will once again need to go the attack as there is yet another time-trial on the final day in Milan. Quintana will tell you that he's riding into form in this race and that his best is very much to come. That could be true and might be explained in those 24 seconds, but the likes of Nibali might claim the same. The Shark will very much be hoping his best is ahead on what looks to be a brutal final week of climbing.

So while on paper you might say advantage Quintana, I actually think it's advantage Dumoulin and it's still wide open for half-a-dozen in this race.