Well, Bernal has been pretty darn good this season, back issues or not. Surely he's a bigger favorite than Yates, but let's hope for some good battles between those two (and hopefully Remco as well) in the Giro!
He has been looking good. A lot better right away than I expected, dont know if that is a reason they slowed down the racing a bit. If he was too good, too early or that they are just being careful to manage his back, so that he will be okay and fresh for 3 weeks of racing coming up. Which I guess is probably the main concern.