"It's difficult, but we're there and we'll see what happens, day by day," Alejandro Valverde summed up the current GC options in the Giro d'Italia in less than 20 words.

The Giro d'Italia GC may be difficult, but there is no doubt that the 42-year-old Valverde is in much better shape than his teammate Ivan Sosa, who is 18 years younger.

Sosa, however, has struggled in the blockhouse and is currently in 17th place with a time of 6:55. Meanwhile, Valverde, who finished ninth on Sunday's monster Abbruzze climb and was less than a minute behind winner Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), is now in 11th place overall with 1:23.

For any racer, this would be impressive enough. But despite the fact that Valverde, the Giro's oldest racer and in his last year as a professional, said before the Giro that GC was not his main option, the Spanish veteran is clearly determined to stay on top for as long as possible, despite himself.

Valverde admits that his performance at Brockhaus was better than expected, but says that questions about GC's options will have to be put on hold until another major mountain comes along next weekend. [Valverde told Cycling News at the start of stage 10, "I probably wouldn't have expected to be able to climb that hard and that far on a day with 5,000 meters of climbing." Valverde told Cycling News at the start of stage 10,

but was he surprised by Brockhaus' performance?

"It's true that I'm in the overall classification, but I'll keep going for the stages. So we'll see what happens. This week will be basically flat or even flat stages, and at the weekend [in Turin] we will see if I can aim for the GC or not."

Valverde, however, is not surprised that he is not in the top 10 in the overall standings. [But Valverde made no secret of his intention to aim for GC in this race, where he finished on the podium and won a stage six years ago behind Vincenzo Nibali and Esteban Chaves.

"It's difficult, but we are there.

Valverde certainly had no problem staying "up there" on stage 10, the relentless chain of fourth-class mountains that defined Tuesday's stage. And he holds 11th place overall.

Thus, the stage vs. overall dilemma remains on hold for now.