Simon Yates is ready to go on the defensive to retain his Giro d'Italia lead, having admitted he "died a thousand deaths" during Tuesday's time trial.
The Mitchelton-Scott rider had conceded he was not expecting to excel in the time trials and worried he could lose the healthy lead built by three stage wins earlier in the race.
Although Yates' advantage was cut by over a minute, he retains a 56-second gap to reigning champion Tom Dumoulin, who could only muster a third-place finish in stage 16.
And that was enough for the race leader to consider it a job well done.
"I'm really happy [with the size of the gap]," Yates told Eurosport. "In the first half, I had a good rhythm, I wasn't losing so much time and really trying to hold my position.
"The final 10k [kilometres], I really died a thousand deaths and thought I'd lose a lot more time. But I didn't.
"It really changes my tactics for the coming days. Unfortunately for fans, I can be a lot more defensive, as I have a bigger gap to the guys behind me now. It's a good gap and I'll see what I can do."
Yates should now be able to cling on to his lead on Wednesday's ride to Iseo, before the tricky task of the Alps later in the week.
