Now in fairness, I think Masnada is an interesting case of a late bloomer, the kind of slow developer who was probably a bit more common a few years ago and that we've almost forgotten due to the recent success of extremely young riders.
@Mayomaniac reported a few days ago that Masnada was a good u23 rider. And even though results are not flashy I tend to believe him since he's among the posters with the best knowledge of Italian (and Austrian) prospects.
Masnada then took a few years to adapt to the pros riding with Androni. His results were far from spectacular but you can see a trend, he improved every year. He was 26th in his maiden GT, which is a clear marker of good recovery. He also scored a few good results in minor stage races (mostly in China, to be fair).
He then kept improving after signing for WT teams, first CCC and then DQS. I agree that last year's top10 in the Giro should be put into context, but it's still a top10 for a rider who got very few chances to ride a GT in his career.
And he took another step in 2021, his performance on Thyon 2000 was incredible, beating proven climbers like Porte, Izagirre, Kelderman, etc, and it was followed by probably his best TT ever.
So yeah, I agree that having him as a *** favorite for the Giro is crazy, but I won't be completely shocked if at the end of the Giro he's the best DQS rider in GC, considering all the question marks surrounding Remco.
His career trajectory reminds me a bit of Pello Bilbao's one. We never took him seriously until we realized he was fighting for a GT podium at 30 years old.