Marco Pinotti is the new leader of the Giro d'Italia after a superb ride in Friday's sixth stage.
Pinotti, riding for the T-Mobile team, was pipped to stage honours by Colombia's Luis Felipe Laverde but still did enough to wrest the leader's pink jersey from the back of Italy's Danilo Di Luca.
Di Luca and his Liquigas team-mate Enrico Gasporotto had dominated the overall standings over the first five days of the race but it was all change on Friday.
Pinotti and Laverde, of the Panaria-Navigare outfit, had both featured in the first really successful breakaway of the 2007 race, the 90th edition of a contest second only to the Tour de France in prestige.
Christophe Kern, Hubert Schwab and Daniele Contini also featured in the breakaway in the 177km run from Tivoli.
Friday's race had two steep climbs in the Terminillo and Forca Capistrello ascents and then mountain specialist Laverde launched his attack.
The rider who honed his cycling skills in the rarified atmosphere of the Andes delivered his attack with only Pinotti able to stay with him and the other three escapees dropping back.
Pinotti, from Bergamo in northern Italy, had his eyes on the pink jersey and was happy for Laverde to claim stage honours.
The Italian now leads the race by a considerable margin as the peloton came in some seven minutes behind the leaders.
Pinotti had started the day more than three minutes behind Di Luca but completely outmanoeuvred his rival.
Saturday's stage is the longest of this year's Giro with the riders facing a 254km run from Spoleto to Scarperia as the race begins to head north.
Onerous Alpine climbs and brief visits to France and Austria await the peloton before the finish on June 3 which, as usual, will be in Milan.
