"I think the wind is going to be very stressful today. Wednesday's flat trek to Reggio Emilia was supposed to be a group sprint to the finish, but that didn't mean the overall class riders could easily switch off. But that didn't mean the overall contenders could just switch off. After the 10th fastest stage in Giro d'Italia history, which ran at 47.015 km/h, pre-race favorite Richard Kalapas (Ineos) added to the tension by winning a 3-second bonus sprint in the second intermediate sprint. However, Hindley safely completed the main peloton and held on to fifth place overall. Hindley, who finished second overall in 2020, began to move up the order with a victory on the summit of Brockhaus Mountain on stage 9; thanks to his stay in the Pescara hinterland as an amateur athlete in the summer of 2015, the Australian rode familiar terrain.

The victory, his first since kicking Tao Geoghegan Hart off the summit of Laghi di Cancano in the closing stages of the 2020 Giro, was also confirmation of the form Hindley has quietly shown since moving from DSM to Bora-Hansgrohe in the off-season. His fifth place overall at Tirreno-Adriatico was emblematic of his solid run this spring, but there is nothing more reassuring than a podium finish.

"It gave me confidence. Being on the podium was a confidence booster. It was huge for me. My first win with my new team was really important for me.

"It was good to have a rest day right after the Brockhaus stage. But yesterday [stage 10 in Jessi] it was back to reality and it was a pretty hard stage."

While high-profile riders such as Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo Visma) and Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) dropped out of contention for the maglia rosa in the opening week, the overall leaders remain fairly crowded. The top seven overall riders are separated by just 29 seconds, and five more are within 90 seconds of Lopez's maglia rosa.

Domenico Pozzovivo, currently in eighth place with a 54-second lead, told Cycling News that he had never seen so many riders battle so evenly on a stage as tough as Sunday's Passo Lanciano and Brockhaus.

"I think the level of the top 10 guys is very even," he said. It's fine for what you see on TV."

As the Giro approached the halfway point, the results looked as open as when they left Budapest. In some ways, this was similar to the 2020 edition, which was delayed by the pandemic. Hindley, teammate Wilco Kelderman, and eventual winner Tao Geoghegan Hart came on strong in the summit finish to Piacavallo on stage 15.

"I think the level in 2020 was also high, but maybe a little less deep," Hindley replied when asked to compare the two races.

"The 2020 numbers were my best numbers, so certainly the level was higher. But as we all know, maybe the field wasn't as deep as it is now."

Similarities exist: just as in 2020, Hindley has teammates who are higher in the overall rankings. Emmanuel Buchmann did his best behind the six-man lead group in the Brockhaus and is currently in ninth place with 1:09 to go.

"Exactly. It's an old cliché, but we just take it one day at a time," Hindley said.

"I think that's the best approach, it's nice to have two guys up there and have more cards to play."

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