Tuesday 17 May 2016 13:17, UK
Team Sky's Mikel Landa believes he is in the “perfect” position at the Giro d’Italia after reaching the second rest day only narrowly adrift of his main rivals for overall victory.
The Spaniard lies eighth in the general classification with nine of the race's 21 stages completed, 1min 18sec down on leader Gianluca Brambilla, but only 25 seconds behind Vincenzo Nibali and 23 seconds back on Alejandro Valverde.
Landa had expected to be much further down given that stage nine was a time trial, a discipline in which he traditionally struggles, but the 26-year-old climber produced a superb performance on the 40.5km course and will now go into the upcoming mountain stages high on confidence.
He told skysports.com: "At the beginning of the Giro, we expected to have lost more time than we have, but fortunately, the hard work we put into time-trialling before paid off yesterday [stage nine].
"We are in the perfect place, I think. The time I have lost to the other favourites is not so much.
"I am a climber and the hardest stages are coming, so I am positive and optimistic because the road from here to the finish is the best I can imagine."
Landa's preparations for the Giro were disrupted by an illness that forced him to delay the start of his season to the end of March.
He has been pleased with his condition so far, but given his reduced race time in the build-up, he admits he is not 100 per cent certain of holding form for all three weeks and 21 stages.
He added: "My condition is good. My year started bad but we were arrived in the best condition here after Pais Vasco [Tour of the Basque Country] and the Giro del Trentino. We did our best to be prepared and I feel good.
"But I don't know how I will be in the last week of the racing because my preparation was not perfect."
While Landa, Nibali and Valverde performed well in stage nine's time trial, fellow pre-race favourites Ilnur Zakarin, Esteban Chaves, Rafal Majka and Rigoberto Uran all sustained substantial time losses.
Landa, however, is refusing to rule them out of contention.
He said: "My main rivals are the same now as they were at the start of the race: Nibali and Valverde for sure, but we can't forget Zakarin, Chaves, Majka or Uran. They lost some time yesterday, but I think Zakarin is one of the strongest riders in this Giro."
