Really? Why? The likes of Chaves and Pozzivivo were better than him and are also pure climbers. Heck, there are barely any tough MTF's in the entire race so where is he going to gain time?[/quote]
----------------------------
This is a 3 weeks race. It is not a question of to be one day some seconds better than others...
Landa was OK, I think similar than in 2009 in this first mountain finish...Last year Giro started early with the mountains...second and thirs stages where medium mountains stages, and 5th was a mountain finish...that way Landa started very well and with that big team controlling the race.
If he ha an inspired day, he can put lot of time in the mountains, ot not, but he is one able to do it...[/quote]
---------------------------------------------------
No, he wasn't ok. For someone who is supposedly the strongest climber in the race, and needs to be by far the strongest in order to win it, he was terrible. In this shape he will lose a ridiculous amount of time in the time trial.[/quote]
-----------------------------------------------------
He doesnt need to be the strongest in all the mountain stages to win...
But of course, to win he need to make the difference in a couple of stages, not in this one...For a pure climber the first mountain stage after some days of flats is not the best. There are people like Pozzo and Chaves who are very good with hot (and there were 2 days in the hot) and they always are very strong in the first week.
He was ok, he wanst superb, but ok, a problem would be to lose today one minute, although it would have been very good for the race...Today Aru would have been better than him as he showed last Vuelta... but at the end in a real Dolomiti stage Landa is much better.
Landa is like Fuente, you never knows with him, but no so exagerate