 The sixth stage was shortened from its original length of 265 km ( 165 mi ) to 231 @.@ 6 km ( 143 @.@ 9 mi ) . This was still the race 's second @-@ longest stage , and it featured a breakaway which shook up the race standings . Eleven riders finished nearly twelve minutes in front of the peloton , and reigning Italian national road race champion Giovanni Visconti assumed the race lead , by a margin of less than one second over fellow breakaway member Matthias Russ . Russ had begun the stage 13 seconds ahead of Visconti in the overall classification , but with Visconti gaining seven seconds on Russ at the finish line and six in <unk> on the stage 's intermediate sprint , the young Italian became the next to wear the pink jersey . Visconti and his team Quick @-@ Step ably defended the jersey for nine days , keeping it through the hilly seventh and eighth stages , as well as in the individual time trial in stage 11 and in three flat stages . Visconti eventually lost the lead on stage 14 , the Giro 's first stage categorized as high mountain , as he finished more than eighteen minutes behind stage winner Emanuele Sella . The race lead passed to Gabriele Bosisio after that stage , but he was unable to hold it the next day , finishing fifteen minutes behind Sella , again the stage winner . It was on this stage that Alberto Contador took the lead that he would never relinquish . 
