Simon Yates has taken the maglia rosa after powering away from the group of favourites in the closing kilometres of the 169km stage from Caltanissetta to the Etna Astrophysical Observatory. The Bury rider finished second on the day alongside Mitchelton-Scott team-mate Esteban Chaves who took the stage win.

The first mountain finish of the race brought considerable drama with Colombian general classification contenders Chaves and Sergio Henao (Team Sky) managing to get into the day’s break.

The high pace behind saw a number of contenders dropped, including race leader Rohan Dennis (BMC) with around 3.5km to go.

Chris Froome’s steady approach saw gaps frequently open up as the pace rose and fell, but he recovered to finish 10th on the day and moves up to eighth overall.

Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) remains 2nd and is now at 16s from the race lead.

Chaves, who started the day 14th, moves up to third.

Speaking seconds after the stage finish, stage winner Chaves said: “It’s unbelievable. I needed this for my comeback to the Giro after one year of absence. It was a really hard stage here at the end. I firstly thank Jack Haig for pulling so much in the breakaway. This 1-2 with Yates is like a dream.”

Yates said: “Our tactic today isn’t what our sport director told us to do this morning. It was a crazy day with a lot of attacks going at the beginning. As Esteban was at the front with a pretty big group, it made me sit back. I could save some energy. It worked out perfectly. I felt good so I took my chance to ride across. Esteban had been out all day so he deserved the win. I knew I was taking the Maglia Rosa, which pleases me a lot.”