Santiago Buitrago and Mikel Landa described the two very different faces of Bahrain Victorious at the Giro d'Italia, and the joys and disappointments of Grand Tour racing. [Meanwhile, team leader Landa competed with Richard Kalapas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the steep climbs in the second half of the race.

Buitrago spoke to the growing number of Colombian media in Italy in the back of the mixed zone, and naturally Colombian fans gathered. Fans chanted his name, asked for selfies, and waved their country's flag as they celebrated his second professional win and another Colombian cycling victory in Europe.

Landa sought out Buitrago in the mixed zone after being charged with anti-doping and gave him a long, loving hug, as if he were a brother.

"I knew Santiago had talent. I knew Santiago had talent. That's something special," Randa said admiringly.

Asked about his own race, Landa struggled to be equally enthusiastic. He said, "I think I did pretty well today," and let out a long sigh, "but I'm not sure I could have done better.

"I was able to keep my distance from Almeida, but the other guys were a little stronger than me."

Landa was six seconds behind Kalapas and Hindley, 1:05 behind the leader of the Ineos Grenadiers and 1:02 behind the Australian.

Landa fought hard throughout the stage as fatigue set in, making it an elimination race for the day. Near the top of the steep final Menador climb, he attacked with his hands on his trademark drops. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) lost a minute and dropped to fourth place below Landa, who had moved up to third overall.

Landa received a boost of pace and encouragement from Poels after the Dutch rider dropped out of the day's break; the pair struggled to keep up with Calapaz and Hindley, but as the road to Lavarone accelerated at 4 percent speed, Landa cracked a bit just before the line Landa was just in front of the line and cracked a little. With this six-second gap, Landa crossed the psychologically important one-minute mark.

With mountain finishes to Santuario di Castelmonte on Friday and Marmolada on Saturday, Landa is running out of places to attack his overall rivals and make up time before the Verona Time Trial on Sunday. He is arguably the weakest time trialist of the trio, so he will need at least a 20-second lead to win the Giro.

Landa was destined for the podium in Verona and would probably be satisfied, but he was not about to give up hope of an upset on the final stage.

"I have to keep attacking and keep trying until the Giro is over," he said defiantly.

"The stage to Marmorada on Saturday is really, really difficult, but we have to believe we can do something. We have a chance to be on the podium, but it won't be enough.