This year’s Giro d’Italia has been one fascinating ride, and the race for the maglia rosa this week should be equally dramatic.

Basically, it’s too close to call at this stage, with the top three riders within 28 seconds of each other, four more contenders within the 1 minute 20 seconds of race leader Gabriele Bosisio of Italian domestic team LPR Brakes and a total of 10 riders within 1:40 of the leader.

Stage 14 on Saturday, the first of three high-mountain stages, brought some clarity to the G.C., but some uncertainty as well, mainly because of who got dropped.

Defending Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Astana is only 5 seconds in arrears of Bosisio, but the man who effortlessly danced up the climbs last year in the TdF got dropped Saturday.

Yep, Contador got dropped from the elite group and finished 15th in the stage, 9:33 behind stage winner Emanuele Sella of CSF Group Navigare and 45 seconds behind the first finisher among the G.C. contenders — two-time Vuelta a Espana champ Denis Menchov.

Menchov, Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas), breakthrough young rider Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott), Gilberto Simoni (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Silence-Lotto), Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre), Domenico Pozzovivo (CSF Group Navigare), Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) and Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Scott) all finished ahead of Contador.

The top five finishers Saturday — Sella, Vasili Kiryienka (Tinkoff), Joaquin Rodriguez and José Rujano (Caisse d’Epargne), and Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) — were the riders left from the 13-man breakaway that formed 13 kilometers into the stage. Slipstream-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde also was in that break and finished just 3 seconds behind Contador, in 16th.

Behind Bosisio (who isn’t a threat for the overall) and Contador, Bruseghin (0.28), Riccò (1.02), Di Luca (1.07), Andreas Klöden of Astana  (1.11), Menchov (1:18), Simoni (1.31). Pellizotti (1.32), eight-day maglia rosa wearer Giovanni Visconti of Quick Step (1.35) and LPR Brakes’ Paolo Savoldelli (1:40) round out the top 11.

Di Luca, Simoni and Savoldelli are past Giro winners and are within striking distance with two high mountain stages Sunday and Monday. Klöden, a pre-race favorite, also got dropped Saturday and finished 19 seconds behind Contador in the stage.

American Levi Leipheimer, among the many riders who have crashed in the Giro, had another tough day. He too got dropped and finished 34th in the stage, 4 minutes behind Vande Velde

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