Monday 23 May 2016 14:49, UK
Steven Kruijswijk reached the third and final rest day of the Giro d’Italia with a 2min 12sec lead at the top of the general classification.
The Dutchman has ridden brilliantly, but he has been helped by some underwhelming performances from his rivals.
Here, we rate the overall contenders out of 10 so far…
Position overall: 1st.
Race leader Kruijswijk has been pretty much flawless up to now.
He kept a low profile in the opening 13 stages, staying within just a couple of seconds of main rivals Vincenzo Nibali and Alejandro Valverde, but he then left both of them in his wake as he claimed to the overall lead with an attack on a mountainous 14th stage on Saturday.
Yet his best performance so far was saved for stage 15's individual mountain time trial, when he extended his overall lead to more than two minutes and only missed out on stage victory by a fraction of a second.
Position overall: 2nd, +2min 12sec.
Chaves is Kruijswijk's closest and seemingly only credible challenger for overall victory at the moment, and he can justifiably be happy with his race so far.
All of his time losses to Kruijswijk came in the time trials, his weakest discipline, but in the mountains he has never looked in danger of being dropped, and that is an encouraging sign for final week.
Winning stage 14 was a bonus, but if there was a criticism, it would be that he hasn't really gone on the attack as yet, which will need to change if he is to snatch the pink jersey.
Position overall: 3rd, +2min 51sec.
Nibali's Giro has so far been a huge disappointment. He didn't look anywhere near his best in the first 13 stages, and his form then unravelled completely over the weekend.
First he was dropped and lost time to Kruijswijk and Chaves on stage 14, and then even worse followed when he lost 2min 10sec to Kruijswijk in a calamitous time trial on stage 15.
Position overall: 4th, +3min 29sec.
Valverde had been ambling along much the same as Nibali for the first 13 stages - still in the hunt yet unimpressive - but his hopes of overall victory were all but ended when he lost three minutes to Kruijswijk in a dreadful performance on stage 14.
On the plus side, the 36-year-old Spaniard recovered well with a strong showing on the stage 15 time trial, finishing just 23 seconds down on Kruijswijk in third place on the day.
Position overall: 5th, +4min 38sec.
Nibali and Valverde's time losses on stage 14 grabbed the headlines, but Majka also surrendered 2min 29sec to Kruijswijk and Chaves that day.
He then suffered another 1min 9sec of losses on stage 15's uphill time trial, which has realistically left him fighting for a place on the podium at best.
Position overall: 6th, +4min 40sec.
Zakarin is also now racing solely for a place on the podium after failing to bounce back from his terrible time trial on stage nine, when he crashed twice and lost almost a minute and a half to Kruijswijk.
Stage 14 looked like a good opportunity to repair some of the damage, but he finished alongside Majka 2min 29sec down and then lost another 47 seconds on stage 15's time trial.
The Giro resumes on Tuesday with a mountainous 132km 16th stage from Bressanone to Andalo. Find out more about the stage in our race guide.
