A week after the team's setback, and despite the severely deteriorating weather conditions on Mount Etna, Jakub Fugslan (Astana) was in a pretty good mood during the third stage of the Giro d'Italia, telling reporters, "We had a good test and the team did well."

So far, Astana's Italian GP has been filled with last-minute substitutions for Rodrigo Contreras and Jonas Gregard Wirthl after Yuriy Natalov and Vadim Plonsky withdrew after contact with teammate Zandos Bizigitov, who tested positive for COVID-19.

The team was full of upheaval, in the worst sense of the word.

On Saturday, Miguel Angel Lopez, who was supposed to be Fuglsang's right-hand man in the Giro, was injured, and Fuglsang finished 100th in the opening time trial, well below expectations.

On Sunday, Astana's top rider, Alexandre Vlasov, a promising young Russian who helped Fuglsang win at Il Lombardia, retired with a stomach problem.

But on Monday, Fuglsang and Astana's luck finally improved as wind and rain battered the Etna summit finish.

When Dutchman Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) attacked near the summit finish, Fuglsang was unable to keep up. However, Fuglsang made a sharp move about 7km before the line. He was then the fastest to react to a sharp attack by Trek-Segafredo leader Vincenzo Nibali, 2.5 km from the finish.

"He started the Giro in 100th place on Saturday, moved up to 47th on Sunday, and on Monday he moved up even further to ninth overall, 1:13 behind new leader Joao Almeida (Detunink-Quickstep).

"It was a super difficult day in a small town, with some good roads and some really bad roads. But the riders did a great job, specially keeping me in front and I had to avoid problems," Fuglsang, wearing a jacket and mask, told reporters.

"The final was windy and it was difficult to do much. The weather forecast said there would be no wind on the climbs."

"But it was a good day. It was a pity that Geraint Thomas crashed and fell off the bike."

According to Fuglsang, when he asked the Welshman about it mid-stage, Thomas said he was fine. But "you never know if you're going to get a real answer," Dane noted sarcastically, and indeed, Thomas did crash badly afterwards.

"But that's never the way to make time."

He returned to his case and concluded, "For me at least, today was a good test and I did well."

While Fuglsang's record is full of great successes, it is also true that the Grand Tour is his least profitable hunting ground at the moment, and the question of how the two-time Dauphiné winner fared on Mount Etna, at least for now, " remains "unresolved.

In 14 Grand Tour appearances, the Dane has only finished in the top 10 once, seventh overall in the 2013 Tour de France. His day as a Grand Tour leader goes back even further, to the 2011 Vuelta a España, where Leopard-Trek won the opening round in the team time trial, giving the young Dane first place honors.

Last year, Fuglsang earned an impressive stage win in La Cubilla of the Vuelta, the first Grand Tour stage win of his career, but his only Giro finish of 2016, 12th overall, came despite helping Nibali win the overall as well. Even before the events in Etna, Nibali himself had predicted that Fuglsang would do well in this year's Giro, and based on Monday's evidence, it appears that Fuglsang's former teammate was 100% correct.