We're nine stages into this year's Giro d'Italia and, in Jai Hindley, Australia has a rider within striking distance of the overall race lead.
Hindley currently sits in fifth place, 20 seconds behind overall leader Juan Pedro López Pérez.
However, if you exclude Pérez, who is unlikely to stick with the climbers as the Giro progresses, Hindley is in an even stronger position, just eight seconds adrift of João Almeida, six back from Romain Bardet and five behind Richard Carapaz.
This was just the second of seven mountainous stages on the program at this year's race, so it's important not to get carried away with things, but the early form looks promising for the 26-year-old West Australian.
The most pleasing sign moving forward was the way he mixed it with the leaders on the most significant test of the Giro to date, Sunday's 191km-long, mountainous ninth stage — not that it was easy.
"I didn't really expect to take the win today," an exhausted Hindley said post-race.
"I was on the edge all the way up the mountain, trying to survive as best I could.
"In the last kilometre everything came together and I knew about the right turn before the finish so I went through there first and just gave it my all until the finish."
The brutal stage, which culminated at the top of the fearsome Blockhaus climb, 200km east of Rome in Italy's Apennine region, was a significant moving day for the leading contenders at this year's race.
Team Ineos Grenadiers clearly marked the stage as one where significant gains could be made, with the notorious train of riders clad in red and black setting a terrific pace at the front of the group, obliterating the peloton on the lower slopes of the climb.
Hindley's fellow Aussie Richie Porte drove what remained of the lead group further into the red zone as the road ramped up, shedding all but six of the best — one of whom was his fellow countryman, Hindley.
Despite being distanced initially by some tremendous surges from pre-race favourites Carapaz, Romain Bardet and Mikel Landa, Hindley held onto his form enough to regain contact and eventually, somehow had enough gas to out-last an elite group of riders to cross the line first to claim his second career Giro stage win.
Bora-Hansgrohe sporting director Enrico Gasparotto described Hindley's performance as incredibly good post-race.
"He was always up there when the race exploded on the last part of the climb. He rode his own pace and was able to re-join the three leaders when they tried to shake him off," he said.
The victory puts Hindley in a strong position to once again challenge for a podium, just as he did in his breakout 2020 performance, finishing second overall.
With last year a write off for Hindley due to injury and illness — he abandoned the Giro with a saddle sore after 14 stages — this win and return to form will have the Australian once again dreaming of pink.
"We [Team Bora-Hansgrohe] came here with three leaders and big ambitions," Hindley said, referring to Emmanuel Buchmann and Wilco Kelderman.
"You shouldn't write anyone off at this point."
Buchmann sits 49 seconds behind Hindley, with Kelderman close to 11 minutes off the pace, meaning Hindley is likely to be protected as leader heading into the second week of the race — where the parcours suggests the status quo will be maintained for general classification — and the decisive third week.
Chances for Caleb Ewan in tough second week
While Hindley has enjoyed a stage win, Caleb Ewan is still waiting to get the monkey off his back in this year's race.
Ewan's first-stage crash meant that his Giro got off to the worst possible start and although he recovered and missed out on stage six by the narrowest of margins, he is yet to stand atop the podium while his key rivals, Mark Cavendish and Arnaud Démare — twice, both have.
After enduring what he described as a "sprinters nightmare" on stage nine, Ewan likely has a handful more chances before the race reaches the Alps in the third week.
That will come on Wednesday's 11th stage, a flat 203km ride from Santarcangelo di Romagna on the east coast, north to the central city of Reggio Emlia — although Tuesday's 196km roll along the Adriatic Coast from Pescara to Jesi might suit a sprinter like Ewan, should his team keep him in contention during the lumpy second half of the route.
Thursday's route has three classified climbs, but a flat final 20km, which might also suit any sprinters capable of getting over those hills — including Ewan — while Friday's short-ish 150km run to Cuneo also looks promising.
After that though, the roads get lumpier and the likelihood of Ewan bailing to focus on the Tour de France gets higher.
Ewan currently sits in ninth spot in the sprinters points competition, the Maglia Ciclamino, a whopping 105 points behind Demare.
The Lotto-Soudal rider has not finished a Giro in four previous attempts and, with the points jersey all but out of his reach, you'd expect him to forgo the high Alps in order to better prepare for the Tour de France.
Former lead out man for Cavendish, Mark Renshaw, said on SBS's coverage of the sixth stage that if Ewan didn't win then he would not win a stage at this year's race.
That prediction might be tested this week, but you sense it will still be his final chance of glory at the first Grand Tour of the 2022 season.
