Froome has the vroom for Italy's Giro

If the Giro d'Italia is there for the taking as Mauricio Soler reckoned a few days ago then the Colombian from the Barloworld team will need to get a grip of it in the mountains this weekend if he is to have any say in the final outcome.

On Thursday's 12th stage Soler finished seven minutes and 38 seconds down on Denis Menchov, the Russian who won the 60km time trial and took over the leader's pink jersey from Italian Danilo di Luca. Levi Leipheimer, the American who finished second on the stage, is third on the general classification.

Indeed, Barloworld may also be looking to Chris Froome, the Kenyan-British-South African rider who finished 34th on Thursday, 5min36 behind Menchov and the best-placed of the team in red on the stage.

Froome is fifth in the young riders' classification and 29th overall, 14min05 off the pace, with Soler one place above him in 28th on 12min19. Froome has shown good form in 2009 and, while designated primarily as a domestique for Soler in the Giro, will have ambitions of his own should the Colombian not feature.

Saturday and Sunday's stages will suit Froome down to the ground and he may look to squeeze himself into an escape and take his chances.

Soler had grounds for his claim that the Giro was still wide open as Australia's former World time trial champion Mick Rogers, regarded as one of the favourites for the race, had a poor day on the bike, finishing 2min46 behind Menchov.

"It was a tough time trial today," said Rogers. "It wasn't my best but I'll put that one behind me and move on. The Giro is far from finished."

Levi Leipheimer has the luxury of having Lance Armstrong looking after him in the mountains after fellow American Chris Horner crashed out of the Giro a few days ago. Now 40sec behind the pink jersey, he described the time trial, which had so many tough climbs that alsmost all the riders opted for normal race bikes instead of the sleek time trial bikes, as particularly brutal.

"I hope y'all enjoyed that time trial because it was pure torture," said Leipheimer."

South African Rob Hunter is a sprinter, not a climber, and finished 14min17 behind. Friday's 13th stage will be a day for the sprinters, although Hunter did have time to share a joke with a spectator as he trundled up one climb.

"That was no joke," said Hunter. "It made the Alp D'huez time trial on the Tour de France a few years back look stupid! A spectator even said to me 'get in the car, you'll go faster'. He was probably right."