Nothing was anticipated equally eagerly as Nairo Quintana's attack on the steepest slopes of Giro d’Italia first real mountain stages, but such predictions never came real as the 24-year old Colombian suffered from both bad legs and injuries sustained in the mass-crash last Thursday, only able to follow wheels of other race favorites. Instead, Domenico Pozzovivo emerged as the most aggressive rider of the strong field of climbers present in the Italian grand tour, but the Movistar rider hopes to recover quickly enough to be ready for a real offensive when the peloton will hit big mountains next weekend.

Like most of the pre-race favourites, Quintana hit the deck in the dramatic finale of Montecassino stage, but managed to remount his bike quickly enough to join the first chasing group and limit his time losses to Cadel Evans (BMC). Even though the general classification riders had one relatively easy day to recover before heading to the mountain for the first time, the Movistar leader revealed that in his case, it wasn’t enough.

"My injury is hurting a lot, particularly when there are attacks, but I hope to recover on the rest day. It's come just in time."

"But the injuries are affecting me, and I don't feel as good as I'd like."

While yesterday’s stage to Sestola was rightly considered one of the best opportunities for breakaway artists to take the spoils in this year’s Giro d’Italia edition, Quintana was an outright favorite to claim a victory on some time on other GC contenders on Saturday. The 24-year old Colombian admitted that indeed he has such plan, but both painful injuries and bad legs prevented him from doing anything more than simply following wheels of other climbers.

"I'm up there with the favourites, I haven't lost time on another stage," Quintana, thirteenth on the stage where he finished with a group of 21 favourites and currently ninth at 1:45 on Evans, said.

"However, my legs weren't great and it was impossible to follow Pozzovivo when he attacked, he's going very strongly in the mountains."

Quintana's next opportunity to pull time back on Evans and the rest of the favourites will come on stage 14 to Oropa, however, the Colombian rider would have to hope for much quicker recovery not to lose to much time on the long time trial coming Thursday.