Movistar team manager Eusebio Unzue has revealed his thoughts about the main contenders for the win in the Giro d'Italia. He bets on Mikel Landa as the favourite for the pink jersey. Indeed, the Corsa Rosa is well suited to his characteristics according to Unzue.

"His time trial was a surprise in other ways given how difficult it is in a time trial, to get a top result, when we saw how thoroughly the specialists had really done their homework and their riders hogged the top spots in the classification too", Unzue told Cyclingnews. "It’s a much better race for riders like Mikel who like to improvise.The Giro, on the other hand, is a race with a huge question mark permanently hovering over it. A quiet day just isn’t conceivable."

“It makes the Giro a hugely anarchic, unpredictable race, and then if you add in a top favourite like [Vincenzo] Nibali (Astana) who is as unpredictable as the Giro itself, that just redoubles the uncertainty."

But Unzue stays confidents in his leader Alejandro Valverde. "He did a good time trial, but he went much stronger in the first half than in the second, and in a short time trial like this one, you’re virtually obliged to calculate your strength very carefully. Alejandro has surefire consistency. With him, you can always dream of success, sometimes it works, sometimes not, but you can always dream of it."