Time trials are a brutal test of a rider's leg muscles, aerobic fitness and sheer cussedness of heart, and Australia's leading trio were not found wanting in the Giro d'Italia's tenth stage.
Any chance of an Aussie time trial stage win in this year's tour disappeared when Jay Vine left the race last week with injuries.
For Jai Hindley, Ben O'Connor and Michael Storer, who began Tuesday fourth, eighth and tenth respectively in the general classification, it was a case of hanging in there.
At the end of the flat, 42-km route along the Tuscan coast from Viareggio to Massa all three were in the top seven, albeit with some shift in positions.
O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) is up to fifth, Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) slipped to sixth and Storer (Tudor Pro) climbed to seventh.
Like everyone else in the field, they could not get close to stage winner Filippo Ganna's time of 45 minutes, 53 seconds.
The Italian picked up his his eighth Giro stage win, seven of which have been time trials, by 1:54 from Netcompany-Ineos teammate Thymen Arensman.
Frenchman Remi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United) was third, five seconds further back.
"We have done an amazing job last winter to prepare for time trials," Ganna said.
Pre-race favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) was a surprising three minutes down on Ganna in 13th place.
That meant Portugal's Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious), who began the day 2:24 ahead of Vingegaard but is an inexperienced time-trialer, still holds a 27-second advantage.
“I suffer, suffer, suffer, but in the final I arrive here and I keep the maglia rosa, it’s incredible,” said Eulalio.
“The car started to tell me ‘you are close, you are close, you are close to Jonas,’ but first I think 'OK it’s close, but not to keep the maglia rosa'. I just continue believing and I went all in.”
Arensman moved up from sixth to third, 1:57 behind Eulálio with Felix Gall (Decathlon-CMA-CGM) now fourth.
O'Connor, who came 11th in the stage, is 2:48 behind Eulalio, Hindley, who came 22nd, is 3:06 adrift and Storer, who came 15th, is 3:28 back.
After what was the only time trial in this year’s race the peloton faces a 195-km ride from Porcari to Chiavara that features three categorised climbs.
