The Giro d'Italia is not for the faint of heart, with miserable fall conditions and little control, but Jai Hindley (Sunweb) seemed to be enjoying the experience.

At Tortoreto Lido two days ago, and again at Cesenatico on Thursday, the Australian was at the front of the Maria Rosa group, which was narrowed down to a lead group long before the finish line. On the opening 12 days of the Giro, he remains in seventh place overall, 1:19 ahead of pink-jerseyed Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step).

"It's just fun," Hindley told Cycling News in Cesenatico before stage 12. 'It's like a real bike race, everybody's racing as hard as they can. It's a last man standing type of race, which is really cool. I'm really enjoying it. It's hard to control because I don't think any team is better than the other, but I think that makes for good racing."

"I'm really enjoying it," said Cesenatico.

This Giro, more than any other, will likely be a battle for the last one. The Mitchelton-Scott and Jumbo Visma teams withdrew from the race on Tuesday after rest day tests confirmed a coronavirus case, and Hindley's Sunweb teammate Michael Matthews also left the race after testing positive for COVID-19. Sunweb, with Wilco Kelderman, is in second place overall, 34 seconds behind Pink.

"It was pretty crazy that a racer I had dinner with didn't test positive the next day," Hindley said. 'It's not an easy thing to wrap your head around. But at the same time, we're here to race bikes and we're going to keep doing it until we can't."

This will be Hindley's second Giro d'Italia since his debut a year ago, but he gained early experience on Italian roads as an amateur, spending one season with the amateur team Alain Cucine in Abruzzo at the young age of 18. On the other hand, the anarchic nature of this Giro (not to mention the conditions) reminds one of Lars, who finished second overall in Hindley in 2016.

The Giro had been on Hindley's schedule from the start of the year, which began with his overall victory in the Herald Sun Tour; when competition resumed in August, the event remained the centerpiece of his season, with solid runs in the Tour de Pologne and Tirreno-Adriatico and quietly prepared for October.

Kelderman arrived in Sicily as leader of Sunweb, leaving Hindley free to fight for the overall. Sunweb's Luke Roberts said, "It's not the result we are hoping for, but the process."

"You can look for your result, but at the same time there is no expectation there, you race every day for 21 days," Roberts said. 'I didn't know what the outcome would be, but the training at altitude was substantial. But training at altitude was quite something. But it's nice to be in the top 10."

Kelderman, who will move to Bora-Hansgrohe in 2021, came to the Giro with the goal of a podium finish, but his ambitions have been growing ever since he attacked the Maglia Rosa group on stage 3 on Mount Etna. He was once again the strong man in the pink jersey group on stage 9, Roccaraso, and hopes to make up time on many of his rivals in Saturday's time trial to Valdobbiadene. Hindley is aware that he may have to sacrifice his own ambition in order to dye his teammates pink.

"Wilco is also here for life. I mean, if it comes down to it, I'm willing to sacrifice to win the pink jersey for him," Hindley said.

Of course, it remains to be seen if this Giro will complete the full route from here to Milan, but based on his previous Grand Tour experience (32nd in the 2018 Vuelta and 35th in last year's Giro), Hindley expressed confidence that he can keep himself in good shape until late in the race ...

"Usually by the third week I feel pretty decent," he said. The final week is pretty grueling, so I'm going to give it all the energy I have."