Del Toro off to a brilliant start, but UAE sticks with two leaders: "Climbing performance Yates good sign"

In recent months, Ayuso has been consistently tipped as the big leader for the Giro. Despite a crash on day 1 and a somewhat nervous and disappointing time trial on day 2, the Spaniard is still the closest of all the GC contenders in this Giro, 16 seconds behind Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe).

However, just one second behind the 22-year-old Ayuso is Del Toro, who, at 21, is competing in his second grand tour. He was only one second slower than his designated leader in the time trial, but Baldato keeps him out of the firing line. "The other two [Adam Yates and Ayuso] are the leaders, and he's racing without any pressure," Baldato says. "But if we need him to be there to support the others, then hopefully he can be there."

Read more below the photo.

Although Adam Yates lost 20 seconds more to Roglic than Ayuso in the time trial, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is very happy with the first three days of the 32-year-old British rider. "He did super. If you look at the time splits on the climb, he was actually capable of the same time as Jay Vine," Baldato points to the UAE rider who finished third in Saturday's race against the clock.

"I asked Adam yesterday [Saturday] and he said he was pleased. And that climbing performance - that was a good sign," said the sports director, who is not overly concerned about Ayuso's time deficit. "The Giro's three weeks long, though and at the end of the day, it's 16 seconds. More or less what we expected. Some riders were suffering from the first stage, because it wasn't easy with the crashes. Ayuso was maybe hoping for a better TT, but he was a little bit influenced by that crash [on stage 1] and you lose confidence on roads that are not safe and really slippery. It's not the same. And it's better to be safe than sorry."