Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) chose his words diplomatically and carefully during his press conference on the Giro’s first rest day yesterday.

Though he confirmed that he predicts assaults from Sky's Colombian riders, Sergio Henao and Rigoberto Uran, he steadfastly refused to Sky leader Bradley Wiggins out of contention for final victory in the Italian stage race.

On Saturday's individual time trial to Saltara, Nibali took the pink leader’s jersey and now he must find the balance between attentive defence of his slim 29 seconds overall lead and seeking to expand it where possible.

The Sicilian anticipates the first major attacks on his overall lead to come on the climb of the Altopiano del Montasio when hostilities resume on Tuesday.

"Certainly, the team that above all is going to go on the attack is Sky," Nibali said according to Gazzetta dello Sport. "In Uran and Henao, they have two riders who I don't think are just going to sit there watching. [Michele] Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) and Cadel Evans (BMC) are up there on GC too and they're going well. They're the most dangerous rivals along with Wiggins."

Commenting on the widespread speculation about Wiggins’ less than impressive performance on the descent in this year’s Giro, Nibali said, "It's not that he's a debutant, I think his problem is that the hard descents have been wet," Nibali said. "There must certainly be a plausible explanation, maybe an old crash. I've had some problems myself with wet descents in the past."

"Scarponi is maybe the one I've seen going best of all on the climbs, but I'd put Wiggins up there too because making up a minute on the final climbs like he did yesterday [Sunday] isn't very easy," Nibali said. "I don't underestimate Wiggins. There are very hard stages to come and I don't rule anybody out."

So far, Sky has not been able to dictate the course of events in the same commanding manner as in the Tour de France last year. This lack of complete and utter control has not gone unnoticed by the Sicilian.

"Wiggins has a very different team to last year at the Tour which imposed a rhythm that left little opportunity for attacking. That said, while I haven't seen Wiggins attack much, he can make long accelerations in progression when he does, so we'll see how he goes in the climbs to come. He has some good support too, with riders like Uran, Henao and Kanstatin Siutsou."

Speaking of his own Astana team, Nibali claimed the rest day was needed to allow some teammates to recovery from minor problems. "I think we all needed this rest day," Nibali said. "Yesterday the boys worked very well and this rest day will be very good for [Paolo] Tiralongo and [Valerio] Agnoli who have both been ill and are recovering well now. After Gruzdev fell on the descent yesterday, I was left with just Tanel Kangert in the finale but he was very strong all the way to the end."

One way of easing the burden on Astana's resources would be to give up the pink jersey and the inherent responsibilities that come with the jersey to another team by allowing a break go up the road during the second week of the race. "That's something we'd look at and decide upon during the race," said Nibali, who acknowledged that the task of holding the overall lead was both a load and a blessing:

"Having the maglia rosa takes up time after every stage with the podium, anti-doping and the press conference, so there's less time to recover, but that's balanced by the motivation it gives you."