DISCUSSION Giro d'Italia Stage 10 | Is Juan Ayuso the UAE leader now? Was Roglic the true winner of the day?

Stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia was once again an important day for the GC, creating huge gaps amongst some of the main contenders. Time trials are always a defining element of any grand tour, even more so when rain is added to the equation. Climatology was only benevolent until around 16:00 CET, with rain starting to fall with more and more intensity as time pased by, affecting the riders placed on top of the general classification.

Wet and slippery roads forced riders to be very cautious, much more than those who started before the rain appeared, helping Daan Hoole to secure the second professional win of his career. Primoz Roglic had the best time amongst the main GC guys, cutting back 19 seconds on Ayuso and more than a minute on Isaac Del Toro.

Once the time trial finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways.

Entertaining race. Daan Hoole was only surprisingly inattentive, although he may have benefited from the fact that Joshua Tarling caught more wind in the second and third sectors to win the day. As for the men fighting for the overall, nothing to say. The rain probably spoilt Roglic and Ayuso's plans.

Bernal fell and had a bad ITT and is definitely out of the final top five in Rome. McNulty and Vine did a conservative ITT, they had nothing to risk, as did Carapaz, Gee and the Yates brothers. The race is on fire for the general classification.

I hear and see commentators being very critical of Egan Bernal. Once again, it was the same old story: Bernal is losing time, he’s not the same anymore, and this was a major setback. But was it really?

He crashed early on and was one of the few riders who rode under relentless, pouring rain from start to finish. Many other favorites, just ten minutes later, had dry sections here and there. That makes a huge difference. Bernal quite literally rode with the dark rain cloud hanging over him all the way from the start straight into Pisa.

So I wouldn’t draw harsh conclusions from Bernal’s significant time loss. One thing is certain, though: he was by far the unluckiest favorite of the day. What we've also seen is a pretty strong Simon Yates. His profession might be cyclist, but I am sure his hobby is dark horses. He's riding like one.

Not many conclusions can be drawn from today, a rainy TT that mostly impacted the GC guys. Riders like Roglic or Ayuso were expected to perform better than the rest of the contenders and that is exactly what happened.

Initially, I was pleasantly surprised to see that nobody seemed to crash despite the rain, at least that it was shown during the broadcast. Sadly that wasn’t true because Egan Bernal confirmed soon after arriving at the finish line that he had crashed at the beginning of his time trial.

This helps to explain his performance, which was surprisingly mediocre knowing his excellent time trial skills and the great shape he has been showing during the first week. He has lost some precious time that might be decisive for the final outcome of the GC, but I am still quite confident that he can do a great performance, minimum a top 5.

After his brilliant victory in Siena on Sunday, I was actually hopeful to see Wout van Aert back with another great performance in the time trial, a discipline in which he has always excelled, but he didn’t have the same legs and was far from Daan Hoole in the end.

His teammate Simon Yates honestly impressed me, I would have never expected him to finish such a long time trial a few seconds behind Ayuso and faster than specialists like Antonio Tiberi. After a quiet start of the season, he may be peaking at the best moment. I have to admit that I didn't really trust that he could make a good GC, but he is proving me wrong so far.

Juan Ayuso was truly flying, I think he was the best amongst the favourites before reaching the wettest part of the course. He was much better than Isaac del Toro and is now just 25 seconds behind him. So the main question is still there: Who is the leader at UAE? Is Ayuso close enough to del Toro to consider him the boss as it was the idea before the start of the Giro? Figuring out the hierarchy might be the toughest task for the team, which is otherwise dominating as usual.

Overall, UAE seems in an even better position as before the TT, given that both Adam Yates and Brandon Mcnulty improved two spots and are sitting 6th and 7th respectively. With 4 riders in the top 10, UAE have many cards to play and can be very versatile.

They can for example launch Adam Yates while the rest of the team comfortably sits on the wheel of other riders and lets them take the responsibility of chasing. No other team, excluding Ineos with Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman, has more than one well placed GC rider.

There are still many stages left and the real mountain tests have not arrived yet, but with the current situation, it feels like this Giro might be for the UAE to lose.

With Roglic and Vine crashing, it felt like an average day of racing! All-in-all there aren't too many conclusions to take from today, apart from Egan Bernal (who crashed) it felt like everyone was right about where I expected in terms of GC gaps.

Roglic truly was the winner of the day, not only brushing off the crash in the recon but taking important time on both Del Toro and Ayuso which puts him in a much more manageable gap - which means he doesn't have to urgently worry at this moment.

I will really put some focus on Simon Yates who is seemingly peaking perfectly for this Giro, having been very under the radar all spring and honestly throughout the entire race so far, but he is the only rider to sit between the UAE guys and Roglic. Will be exciting to see how he will be in the high mountains.

Of course not to neglect the victory of Daan Hoole, who has been tremendous throughout the spring and now the Giro, and sees his form and steady development well rewarded with a breakthrough win.

Few conclusions for the overall of a time trial that was affected by the rain. With a few exceptions (such as the disaster of Einer Rubio and Movistar Team), everyone lost time because of the water. The biggest beneficiary was Roglic, who took time off everyone.

Del Toro still has the maglia rosa, but with very little time advantage. Here we have to point out UAE, because if they had ridden for Ayuso in the sterrato stage, today he could have left as leader and with considerable time over his rivals and Primoz himself.

The rain has ruined a time trial finish that was supposed to be spectacular. Primoz Roglic has been favored by having started earlier, which makes a little counterbalance with the bad luck he had in the 'mini Strade Bianche'.

Juan Ayuso has clearly been the most damaged and Isaac del Toro holds the pink magic, but no longer has so much advantage. Despite the rain, this time trial has left us with the overall in a fist and some exciting stages await us in the coming days.