Ilnur Zakarin showed his strength on the first summit finish of the Giro, where he vaulted himself up the GC to just 28 seconds behind Tom Dumoulin.

"At the beginning of the final climb I did not feel so good. There was a strong wind, but Pavel Kochetkov protected me and later on I started to feel better," said Zakarin.

Zakarin is a little bit of an unknown quantity in the Giro. He has proved over the last 18 months he can climb and time trial with the biggest names in cycling, but he hasn’t put it together over a three-week race yet.

"Last year we just aimed for stages with Ilnur and that's very different to doing GC. To ride for the overall you have to be switched on and focus every day for three weeks," his Katusha DS Dimitri Konyshev told Cyclingnews ."We'll see if he's able to keep this concentration for the whole Giro, because apart from the time trial, this race will be decided entirely in the last three or four days. His condition is excellent at the moment but there are still more than two weeks to go.”

Konyshev says Zakarin shows great leadership qualities on the bike and is always in communication with his teammates.

"I won't mention names, but we've had leaders who wouldn't say if they wanted to move up or go back. Whereas on the radio, I can hear Ilnur talking to the guys all the time, saying what he wants to do," Konyshev says. "That's important."