Isaac del Toro barely clung on to the pink jersey from Simon Yates on a dramatic, attritional stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia that saw Primoz Roglic abandon the race and Juan Ayuso tumble out of contention.
Christian Scaroni won the stage from Piazzo sul Brenta to San Valentino out of breakaway, crossing the line arm in arm with XDS Astana team-mate Lorenzo Fortunato after 203 gruelling kilometres that included 4,900 metres of climbing, but the drama was all behind the leading pair.
Pre-race favourite and 2023 winner Roglic climbed into his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe car after crashing during a wet start to the stage that also saw Wales' stage two winner Josh Tarling and Alessio Martinelli abandon the race, the latter falling down a ravine.
On a terrible day for UAE Team Emirates, Ayuso - who was expected to be Roglic's main rival - cracked on the penultimate climb, going on to ship almost 15 minutes, and team-mate Del Toro found himself exposed on the Passo San Valentino as Yates and then Richard Carapaz attacked.
Carapaz, who was also caught in the early incident that did for Roglic, burst free with a devastating attack that perhaps marks him out as the main threat in the final days of the race, and Del Toro was left alone as Yates then made his own move to get within a few seconds of pink.
Del Toro started the day with an 80-second advantage over Yates but that was just 26 seconds by the end of the day, with 2019 winner Carapaz just five seconds further back in third.
Derek Gee moved up to fourth ahead of Damiano Caruso, with Egan Bernal gaining places, sitting sixth, despite also losing time.
Adam Yates, who did his best to help the struggling Del Toro late on, is 10th, five minutes off pink.
Co Tyrone's Darren Rafferty (EF Education-Easypost) crossed the line in 40th today and is 80th overall. Tipperary man Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) is 147th in the general classification.
