The route of this Giro so far makes any claim that Del Toro could be stronger than Ayuso a bit fanciful due to the fact we've had hardly any real difficulties. In that respect it really does share a small similarity with the 2009 TdF in the sense the backended nature of that edition meant L.A. could 'pretend' he was in contention versus Contador for longer than his legs eventually showed.
All things being equal and unless Del Toro has suddenly made several massive leaps forward, he'll be in huge trouble starting on Tuesday IMO.
And I suspect the only thing bothering Ayuso right now is his knee. That pointless gravel stage might have amused the spectators but both favorites hit the deck. That's impacting the race right now.
Their were attacks on the San Pellegrino, which Toro answered with ease, Del Toro was by far the strongest in the sterrato stage, which was still a 40 minute effort from him.
I think reactions like this are overlooking the level that Del Toro has reached the last 1,5 years so far, where I will mention only what he did in the past half year:
• Del Toro was probably among the three best riders in Basque Country, but did insane work for Almeida instead of going for a result himself
• Del Toro was very good in Tirreno working for Ayuso, where he still managed to get 7th in the mountain stage after setting up Ayuso for the win
• Del Toro won Milano - Torino with a strong performance on Superga
• Del Toro had the entire peloton in pain in The Ardèche while setting up the Ayuso win
• Del Toro was probably the strongest in Jaen, but because McNulty was in front with Kwiatkowski hé could only try to bridge the gap at too late a point in the race
Of course there is a possibility that his inexperience will show next week and that he will suffer during week three. But we are dealing with a superbly talented rider here, and pointing to several massive leaps forward here doesnt really do justice the guy has reached in past races.