Italy's Danilo Di Luca claimed the Giro d'Italia's pink leader's jersey Wednesday after coming in second on stage five, the first really tough mountain stage.
The Abruzzo rider, who was second in the standings after winning the first Dolomites stage the previous day, has now leapfrogged Sweden's Thomas Lokvist by five seconds.
Di Luca came in two seconds behind Russia's Denis Menchov on the gruelling 125-km fifth stage from 1,466m-high San Martino di Castrozza to the 1,844m-high Alpi di Suisi.
Featuring the 1,792m Passo Rolle on the way, stage five was the first frightening mountain stage with a killer 25km climb, the last 10km boasting gradients of 8-10%.
The 2007 Giro winner, himself nicknamed 'the Killer', pipped Lokvist to second with Italy's Ivan Basso, one of the overall favourites, fourth on the same time as the Swede, five seconds behind Menchov.
Lance Armstrong struggled again and lost almost three minutes, after the 30 seconds he lost on stage four.
Armstrong's teammate and tip for final victory in Rome on May 31, Levi Leipheimer, was 9 seconds back and last year's Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre of Spain 19 seconds behind after a late breakaway fizzled out.
Gilberto Simoni, Giro winner in 2002 and 2003, was 50 seconds back while another of the favourites, 2004 Giro winner Damiano Cunego, came in 2 minutes 45 seconds back.
Di Luca leads Lokvist by 5 seconds with Australia's Michael Rogers 36 seconds behind, Leipheimer 43 secs back, Menchov 50 secs adrift and Basso 1.08 minutes off the pace.
Stage six takes the riders from Bressanone across the border into Austria, with two 1,600m peaks along the way.
