Robbie McEwen says Magnier's Giro double forces possible awkward conversation at Soudal Quick-Step

Whatever happens in the remaining weeks of this Giro d'Italia, the race has already been an unqualified success for Paul Magnier. The Frenchman has won two stages in three days and has stamped himself as the best sprinter in the race — but has he left Soudal Quick-Step with an awkward problem of their own making? TNT Sports analysts Robbie McEwen, Adam Blythe and Matt Stephens think so.

In stage one, Magnier won by threading through the carnage of the massive crash and then outsprinting Tobias Lund Andresen and Jonathan Milan. But the second win was even more impressive: a clean, fair sprint in Sofia that he won on pure merit. Sprinting heavyqweights Milan and Dylan Groenewegen came second and third. This is the real breakthrough of the young Frenchman, who is now showing his quality at the very highest level.

Stephens sees Magnier as an exceptional talent — but it is his technique that stands out just as much. "His rear wheel barely moves," the Briton said on TNT Sports. "He is so efficient compared to the riders around him. You can see all the effort and power they're putting out — they're throwing the bike from side to side. His efficiency in a sprint like that is something special."

Soudal Quick-Step had known for some time that they had a gem in their ranks — and they have brought him through in exactly the right way. "The great thing is that he's such a young rider. He has come through the team's own system — he wasn't a big signing but has been built up from the very beginning by the team. He has raw talent, but he is just so, so smooth. It doesn't show how much power is going through that bike."

But there is another fast man at Soudal Quick-Step — perhaps the fastest. Tim Merlier won two stages at the Tour de France last year, but does he now have to reckon with a genuine challenge from his much younger teammate? "Imagine being this good and being the understudy to another sprinter, who is Tim Merlier, one of the absolute best sprinters — if not the best — in the peloton at the moment?" McEwen asked.

Blythe believes the Belgian, now 33 and eleven years older than his teammate, will be doing some serious thinking. "He is so similar to Tim, isn't he?" Blythe said. "When you look at the way he sprints, quite a big gear and very big power he can put down. He is a force to be reckoned with. I'm sure Tim is thinking: 'Hmm…'"

For now, Soudal Quick-Step are managing the pair without conflict. But as long as Merlier keeps performing at his current level, a dilemma is looming on the horizon. Magnier is getting better and better — and he is French, which only adds to the complexity. How long can the team justify keeping him out of the Tour de France in favour of their reigning European champion? McEwen is not sure. "Who is top dog now? You're only as good as your last week."