Hands up if you're tired?

A three-week tour is a test of endurance even for those with the strongest of will.

So it's never a surprise when riders pull out of a grand tour citing ‘tiredness.'

We can hardly blame them - they're riding longer in one day than many people would do in a week, and at greater speeds.

And the physical fatigue would only be the start of it.

They'd be tired of sharing a small hotel room with the same idiosyncratic team-mate and would be counting the sleeps until they could get home to their family and a real adult-sized bed.

They'd be getting tired of the same little paninis with prosciutto and Philadelphia cheese that the soigneur is putting in the musettes for the feed zone (as unimaginable as it sounds, they'd even be tired of eating the Nutella paninis!)

They'd be tired of the same pasta, olive oil and parmesan cheese that was once a nice bonus in week one. In spite of the fact that some of these lads may have been depriving themselves of carbs for the month prior just to prepare for the heinous climbs we've seen in this years' Giro.

They'd be completely over crawling out of bed with aching joints from where their body had hit the ground.

I remember Patrick Jonker, dual Olympian, consummate professional and veteran of many grand tours, telling me that he had frequently crashed, and more than once, he would secretly hope it might be serious enough that he could not continue. A graze is worse than a fracture when you stick to the sheets.

They'd be tired of smiling at the anti-doping officials who always seem to arrive at 6am when the alarm wasn't due to go off til at least 8.

And trust me, you want to smile, because in Europe, stern faces in official uniforms leads to a fear of arrest and being locked in an eastern bloc prison (even when you know you're as clean as a whistle).

Like the other Grand Tours, here at the Giro there is a wonderful fanfare associated with the start of each stage: riders sign on, important guys are interviewed and the top 10 on general classification are asked every five minutes how they're feeling.

Davide Arroyo, the current maglia rosa, gets to release dozens of pink balloons and there is no shortage of gorgeous, leggy models smiling and flicking their hair to keep everything looking beautiful.

But even that would be tiring.

Because this week is where it really counts: flat, ‘easy' days on paper are definitely not easy. Riders like Basso, Evans and Vinokourov are trying to stay safe, not lose time and conserve as much energy as possible.

Desperate domestiques with leaders no longer in contention are now free to take any opportunity they can to get in a break and pray for a stage win, if they can just manage to find the legs.

After the extraordinary time trial in stage 16 where the roads were so steep that not even the team cars could clamber up them, there were some minor re-arrangements in GC.

But we have two hard mountain days to go, three Aussies in jerseys and a lot more paninis to eat yet.

Bridie O'Donnell is an Australian professional rider with UCI Team Valdarno (alongside 2009 World Champion, Tatiana Guderzo, and Italian Champion, Monia Baccaille) and spends six months of each year in Tuscany (where she is now) and six months in Melbourne. After the European season, she will compete in the 2010 Melbourne World Championships. She will be a regular cycling columnist for BackPageLead - (when she's not filing for her blog, Bridie.com.au.)