Two-thirds of the Giro D'Italia is behind us and Danilo Di Luca is still wearing the pink jersey after a tremendous effort on the steep climb towards the Tre Cime di Lavaredo.

The Liquigas rider virtually lost the leader’s jersey by the time his group reached the mountain resort of Misurina, when he was more than three  minutes behind attacker Eddy Mazzoleni of Astana. Mazzoleni had left the pink jersey’s group near Cortina d’Ampezzo thanks to a magnificent effort by his former team leader, now team mate, Paolo Savoldelli.

But in the last four kilometres, Di Luca showed again that he is in tremendous form and that his 'killer' instinct is present today more than ever. He gained more than 2 mins 30 secs on Mazzoleni, while at the front, youngster Riccardo Riccó won his first Giro stage ahead of team-mate Leonardo Piepoli after a tremendous effort that started on the first stages of the first climb.

Let’s take a look at the first couple of weeks of this Giro:

Giro’s overall mark: Out of 10, I’d give a good 8.5 to this Giro, because it’s been unpredictable so far and the riders have done their best to make it even more difficult than it actually was (and the organisers designed quite a hard Giro this year). Every year my belief that the Tour de France is overrated while Giro and Vuelta are underrated gets stronger because the former is always predictable and nothing relevant ever happens. And it’s also easier than the other two Big Tours, while the latters are becoming more unpredictable every single year.

Best rider(s): I select two riders in this category: Danilo Di Luca and Eddy Mazzoleni, now first and second in the General Classification; the former still looks strong after two weeks of racing, something he has never done in the past. The latter is showing that he not just a 'luxury team-mate' but that he can also be effective as team leader.

Worst rider(s): I admit that I had some expectations of Pietro Caucchioli (Credit Agricole), who once finished third in the Giro (back in 2002), but is lying in  30th place some 50 mins behind race leader Di Luca. Another rider who faded back into the bunch is another former podium finisher: Yaroslav Popovych; the Ukrainian tried to fight on the Izoard but the Tre Cime were far too much for him.

Best team: Saunier Duval. The Spanish team is by far the strongest on all terrains (apart from the Team Trials) with two men in the top six (Gilberto Simoni and Riccardo Riccó) and three in the top 15 (add Leonardo Piepoli). They dominated Sunday's stage with a long-range breakaway giving them a one-two at the top of the Tre Cime and they’ve looked strong in all mountain stages so far.

Worst Team: Saunier Duval. That’s the other face of the coin. They have the stronger team and they’ve been unable to get the pink jersey away from Di Luca. Sunday’s outcome of the first part of the stage did put team leader Simoni in an ideal situation to attack, with two men up front ready to help him, but the breakaway was too far away and Simoni did not have the legs to attack Di Luca. Also Riccó lost some minutes on the Colle Dell’Agnello and Izoard back on Thursday.

Best Moment: We have witnessed plenty of wonderful moments in the first two weeks and I picked two moments: Alessandro Petacchi’s tears after his win in Cagliari and Di Luca's attack on the climb towards the Tre Cime. The television did not give justice to this climb. It’s far more difficult than it may seem. Just think how long it took the riders to complete the last 200m.

Worst moment: Pinerolo’s arrive. One of the worst things that can happen to a rider is to fall going at 50-plus kmh on a slippery road because some fool did a bad job putting the stickers on the tarmac. We just needed a Tinkoff rider to touch the brakes and . . . let the circus begin! More than 40 riders didn’t arrive on their bikes there and some suffered consequences that hampered their efforts the following day (Riccó and Savoldelli lost minutes there).

So two weeks are gone and everyone is now looking at the Zoncolan in awe and many riders have started praying to the old Italian gods to help them on Wednesday because many will suffer terrible pains during that climb. We still have the first five riders separated by only 3 mins 40 secs, so the Giro is still wide open and a minor crisis by Di Luca and/or Mazzoleni on Wednesday will mean that the pink jersey will be up there for the braves to grab. Let’s hope the riders will be ready for the show.