From Budapest to the Blockhaus, via Sicily, Calabria, and Napoli, the first nine stages of the Giro have tested our riders. We’ve raced hard. On day one of the Grande Partenza in Hungary, Magnus Cort sprinted to fourth place on the climb to Visegrád castle. When the race got to Sicily, Diego Camargo went all in. His breakaway rivals threw down better cards on Mount Etna, but our young Colombian wasn’t discouraged. He attacked again on stage 7 and made the winning break in a terrific race through the Apennines. Diego’s dream is to win a grand tour stage. He knows that if he keeps attacking, the chips will soon fall his way.

Meanwhile, our riders have protected Hugh Carthy in the race for the general classification. Hugh had to fight through a bad moment on the Blockhaus, but managed to re-find his rhythm and stay in contention. With the Dolomites and Italian Alps still to come, the race for the maglia rosa is still open. This is the Giro. Anything can happen.

Unfortunately, the team will have to do without Owain Doull and Simon Carr for the rest of the race, as they both fell sick and had to leave the Giro during the first week. We will miss them.

“Owain was super important for us at stressful moments,” says EF Education-EasyPost sports director Juanma Garate. “Simon was our guy to be with Hugh in the mountains. Now we don’t have them, we will have to think about how we fill their roles, but all of the guys have done a really nice job. The first week was really long, because the first rest day was not a real rest day, as we had to travel. The team rode according to the expectations we had, always thinking about our leader Hugh and defending his position in the peloton. We’re at the end of this first part. The Giro has started. We need to keep believing in the GC.”

Hugh Carthy still believes in his chances.

“So far, it’s been a hard week with quite a few stressful stages on the flat and some hard mountain stages, but overall we’re still feeling good,” he says. “I didn’t have the perfect day yesterday. I limited my losses and still have something to work towards going forward. We got my bad day out the way. I’m looking forward to more mountains.”

There are plenty more mountains on the way.

After a couple of chances for breakaways and likely sprint finishes, as the Giro makes its way up the Adriatic coast, the race will turn inland and get hillier and hillier, before the thrilling final week, which includes four high-altitude mountain stages and a time-trial in the centre of Verona.

Juanma is optimistic.

“The Giro is a three-week race,” he says. “If we are consistent and Hugh is always there, then for sure he will be where he wants to be at the end.”

Watch out. There is still a lot of racing left in this Giro d’Italia.