Joan Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step) enjoyed his first rest day as leader of the Giro d'Italia. The rain gave him time away from racing to reflect on the week in Maglia Rosa and prepare for the week ahead and his jersey defense.

The nine stages across Sicily and southern Italy eliminated some of the pre-Giro d'Italia overall contenders, revealed weaknesses in others, and highlighted the talent of the 22-year-old Portuguese.

His stunning performances in the opening time trial in Palermo and the mountain finish on Mount Etna earned him the pink jersey, a stunning defense that surpassed Joaquin Agostinho's five-day leader's jersey at the 1976 Vuelta a España He showed He made history in Portuguese cycling, proving his own resilience.

Almeida is the latest success story and the latest graduate of the Hagens Berman Axion development team led by Axel Merckx. He is the 36th athlete to graduate from the team to the World Tour level after winning the 2018 under-23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège and finishing third in the under-23 Giro d'Italia.

Almeida held on to Maria Rosa for the first week, with fellow alumni Alex Dowsett and Ruben Guerriero taking stage wins in Vieste and then Roccaraso. Unfortunately, the American development team has not yet secured its future and has not confirmed that it will continue in 2021.

"I definitely owe part of this jersey to them," Almeida praised the Hagens Berman Axiom program. 'They shared their knowledge and experience with me. I learned a lot there. Cycling is also a mental strength and I think the team has a really good mentality."

On Sunday's tough stage deep in the Abruzzo-Apennines, Almeida was 18 seconds ahead of Jacob Fuglsang (Astana) and Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb), but four seconds ahead of Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) Nibali (Trek Segafredo) by only 4 seconds. The gap to Kelderman was reduced to 30 seconds, but it was still quite a big gap for Almeida.

Almeida could see north from the Apennines to the weekend's Conegliano 34.1 km time trial and Sunday's mountain finish atop Piancavallo.

Before that, the Giro d'Italia continues along the Adriatic coast to Tortoreto, Rimini, and the finish in Nove Colli, the hilly area behind Cesenatico, Marco Pantani's training road. The sprint stage crosses the Po delta to Monselice.

Almeida is confident in his time trial ability and predicts results, especially in Saturday's Conegliano time trial. He finished second in the 2018 under-23 Giro on a similar, albeit shorter course, losing to Rob Stannard that day, only to lose to Alexandre Vlasov in the final overall in the unique Pursuit and Time Trial up the Ca del Poggio.

"I'm already happy," Almeida said in a video conference with the media on his rest day, when asked about the Giro so far. It's a dream come true for me to wear this jersey and the team will do everything to protect it and win the stage."

"'Can I win the Giro? I think I can keep the pink jersey until Piacavallo. We'll see on the day if I have the legs."

The Giro d'Italia will be Almeida's Grand Tour debut. He is talented but aware of his limitations.

"I don't think I can actually win the GC, but we will have to see.

"I haven't run for three weeks and there are a lot of experienced racers here, so if I have a bad day they could take the jersey away from me. We've seen it happen many times and it was the same with Yates [in 2018] when Froome won, if you have one bad day, it can ruin everything. You never know what will happen on the last day."

Almeida may be cautious about making predictions, but he is not afraid to judge his big-name rivals based on what he has seen in the first nine days of the Giro d'Italia. His view is consistent with what many have seen so far.

"This first week, Nibali is certainly stronger, but I think Fuglsang and Kelderman are stronger.

"Certainly Nibali has more experience than anyone else and will probably be stronger in week 3. But any rider in the top 10 could win. There are many riders who can win this Giro."