Like Germany at the World Cup and Roger Federer at Wimbledon, Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) will never be left out of the Giro d'Italia.

Nibali, who gave up his position in Saturday's Valdobbiadene time trial, insisted that the temperature of the Giro could only be read once he had raced through the Carnic Alps to the summit finish at Piacavallo 24 hours later.

The verdict reached by the weekend doubleheader was shocking. Nibali lost 1:36 in the 14.5km to Piancavallo, placing him seventh overall. He was 3:29 behind pink-jerseyed Joao Almeida (Detunink-Quickstep) and 3:14 behind powerhouse Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb).

"It was a hard stage where I rode without saving myself," Nibali said. Sunweb had a very strong rhythm." Sunweb imposed a very strong rhythm. It was difficult for me and many of the bigger guys to maintain that pace."

The pink jersey group was on the first hill out of Aviano when they plunged into the final climb under watery sunshine and fallen leaves crackling under their wheels. As fall began to turn to winter, that is, with less than nine kilometers to go, Nibali was pulled away by a pink jersey group led strongly by Sunweb's Chris Hamilton and Jai Hindley.

"Colpo di siena," cried the commentators on the RAI broadcast, as they watched Nibali lose the first few bike minutes. Nibali will certainly need to put his own twist on the final week of the Giro to recover from this situation. Coming home on Sunday in a group with Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) and Jacob Fuglsang (Astana ProTeam), he had to do the less joyful job of minimizing the damage.

"In the end, there is still a week to go and the stakes are still high, so I protected myself and limited my losses," Nibali said.

"Kelderman confirmed the impression I had. This is reality and we have to accept it.

Outside the Trek Segafredo bus, Nibali's coach, Paolo Slongo, waved apologetically to the waiting reporters. 'I'll be right there,' he said as he boarded the bus to confer with the players. Throngo appeared shortly thereafter and explained Nibali's run. As with the time trial the day before, Throngo said that Nibali's power data was as expected.

"I just talked fast on the bus, so I will analyze the details of the stage later. It was a bad result, but his value today was not bad," Throngo said.

"Yesterday Vincenzo had the same average power as in the time trial in San Marino last year and the good time trial in the 2017 Vuelta. Today was one of his best 20-minute efforts this season, although I can't give you exact data. Let's hope it weakens a bit in the last week because the others were just too strong."

The obvious comparison is the 2016 Giro, where Nibali endured a disastrous third weekend, fell further back at the start of the final week, and turned the race around in the final two days in the Alps. At this point in Nibali's temporary Giro doldrums, the Italian seemed to be sustained by the weight of hometown expectations. This season, interrupted by a pandemic disease, he is sailing rather calm waters, even if it has added many variables to everyone's preparations.

"I am alongside Nibali, who is competitive in the Grand Tours. But you have to admit that there are better riders than him at the moment," Throngo said. 'This is a special year,' he said. A lot of strange things happened at the Tour. Vincenzo is still competitive.

Nibali was 2:51 behind Pink at this point four years ago, but with three stages to go, that gap had grown to 4:43. At that point, he was backed by a strong Astana team. With Gianluca Brambilla's abandonment on Sunday, Trek-Segafredo now had just four teammates.

"But as you can see from this year's Tour de France, the riders have won without a strong team. I don't think we can improve much in terms of conditions, but our strength over the last few years has been consistency." It could be that another rider declines and he stays the same. The Giro is still possible for the top seven or eight, considering the stages that lie ahead."

With such uncertainty, the Giro, in other words, is still winnable, but that victory is no longer in Nibali's hands.

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