Five questions for the second week of the Giro d'Italia

The panorama atop the Blockhaus allows clear views of the Adriatic coast, and when the Giro d'Italia gruppo reached the summit at the end of stage 9, they will have noticed something else about the vista: the road won't climb above 1,000 metres for another week.

The high mountains don't reappear on the horizon of the Giro until next Sunday when the race enters the Alps with an arduous afternoon in the Val d'Aosta. Stage 15 features the category 1 ascents of Pila-Les Fleurs and Verrogne ahead of the long yet steady ascent to the finish in Cogne. But before the Giro d'Italia reaches that next set-piece occasion, the peloton tackles a second week dotted with stages that are open to a variety of interpretations.

The highest point in the second week comes when the Giro revisits the 957m-high Passo del Bocco for the first time since Wouter Weylandt's tragic death in 2011. That ascent comes on a hilly outing to Genoa on stage 12, where the terrain is amenable to a break but not prohibitive to fast men with the ability to climb.

It's that kind of a week on the Giro, né pesce né carne – neither fish nor fowl. It's that kind of a Giro, too, where the hierarchy among the contenders remains difficult to decipher. Ahead of the Giro's resumption on Tuesday, we look at some of the questions that will define the second week of the race.

There's a strong case for saying he could do so for most of it. Just 12 seconds currently separate López from his closest pursuer João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates). After his stunning climbing performance on the Blockhaus and the major GC sort out that unfolded on that monster ascent, López's current narrow lead is more solid than it looks.

The Giro d'Italia favourites are highly unlikely to make a major