Optimism is soaring around Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE after their man Esteban Chaves rose to second in the Giro d'Italia overall standings.
The diminutive, ever-smiling Colombian overtook race favourite Vincenzo Nibali, who had another shocker, to be behind only Dutch rider Steven Kruijswijk after Sunday's mountain time trial.
It's the first time Orica-GreenEDGE have really gone after the overall category in a grand tour and a podium result is on the cards with six stages remaining, even if the two minutes and 12 seconds lead Kruijswijk has opened seems potentially decisive.
A day after winning the tour's toughest stage to get into third place, Chaves managed to finish sixth in the 11km time trial 15th stage, an all-uphill affair from Castelrotto to Alpe di Siusi.
Kruijswijk extended his advantage over Chaves by 40 seconds by finishing second on the stage, 0:16 behind winner Alexander Foliforov of Russia.
Chaves now holds a 39-second edge over third-placed Nibali, the 2013 champion, while Spanish star Alejandro Valverde is a further 38 seconds back in fourth.
Fifth in last year's Vuelta a Espana, 26-year-old Chaves looms as the final piece in the puzzle for the Orica-GreenEDGE team which has enjoyed plenty of stage success on grand tours in its relatively short history.
"I suffered a lot today but we've worked hard for this," Chaves told cyclingnews.com.
"Now after three big mountain stages things are looking good for me, for the team and so we're very happy.
"This is the first time Orica-GreenEdge has really targeted a Grand Tour victory and so far thing are going really well.
"We did the maximum we could and this is the result. We'll keep our feet on the ground though and stay focused because we know it won't be easy."
Nibali was already losing a lot of time on the time trial stage when his chain dropped and he had to change bikes midway through the stage.
Spectators then started running alongside him until the Sicilian swiped one away with his arm.
After a rest day on Monday, stage 16 on Tuesday is a 133km leg from Bressanone to Andalo featuring three classified climbs, two of them in the second category.
The race ends next Sunday in Turin.
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