"The overall is still out there," said Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Easy Post) at the Giro d'Italia, despite a bad (but not disastrous) day in the blockhouse on stage 9 and some nifty late attacks on stage 10 to open the second week. Regardless, how does he see his immediate GC future?

Kersee lost 3:48 at Brockhaus and is now on the outside of the GC contenders, in 15th place with 4:22 in the overall standings after 11 stages.

However, according to Kersee, his best strategy is not to drop out of the GC altogether, but to try to catch up as much as possible on the week 3 climb, and perhaps even before then.

"The finish of stage 10, cutting off from the front in the last kilometer of the Jessi hills, was a morale booster after Sunday's disappointment, but it was a spur-of-the-moment decision rather than a master plan to make up time," Kersee told Cycling News.

"The overall is still there and yesterday [Tuesday] was a good chance to attack. Yesterday [Tuesday] was a good chance to attack.

"So we were in the right position and moved a little bit. I was a little opportunistic, just trying my luck."

The Tour of the Alps went relatively well for Carty, with top-10 finishes, but he warned before the Giro that the early season had not been smooth. On Tuesday, however, he said his poor showing at the Brockhaus was not a sign of major problems.

"There was nothing wrong with my lower body, it was a hot and hard stage, but the feeling was OK.

"I suffered a bit in the middle part of the stage and was out of shape for about five or ten minutes. But I pulled myself together and went into the woods and rode to the finish. I was able to minimize my losses. It was a disappointing day, but it could have been worse."

Kersee insists he probably won't try anything more this week before the high mountain stage, which will be the set piece for the final third stage of the Giro after a late dig on Tuesday.

In the meantime, he says, the Giro has yet to take definitive shape on GC and the top 10 is "chock full of riders" with very limited time differences. Kersee is only certain that "Ineos is in great shape," but in his own case, he says, everything is still up for grabs.

"It's a four-minute gap, so we don't need to do anything dramatic yet," Kersee insists. 'Now we just need to stay calm and carry on.'