Italy's Danilo Di Luca won the first mountain stage in the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday.
Di Luca dedicated his stage-four win to his native Abruzzo region, hit by a devastating earthquake last month.
''I wanted to win today to dedicate the victory to my home region and I'm so happy I succeeded,'' said the rider, who is collecting funds for the survivors of the April 6 quake that killed 300 people and left thousands homeless.
Di Luca, who won the round-Italy race in 2007, won stage four ahead of 2000 Giro winner Stefano Garzelli and Italian climber Franco Pellizotti.
Gilberto Simoni, Giro winner in 2002 and 2003, was fifth behind Colombian climber Juan Mauricio Soler, who was leading until a few metres from the line in this Dolomites beauty spot.
The leader's pink jersey, taken by veteran Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi on Monday, was claimed by Thomas Lokvist of Sweden.
Di Luca is two seconds behind the Swede and Australia's Michael Rogers six seconds adrift.
Overall contenders Ivan Basso, Levi Leipheimer, Denis Menchov and Damiano Cunego all finished with the group but a hard-blowing Lance Armstrong fell behind in the final kilometre.
The Tour de France legend has an even tougher task Wednesday after Tuesday's relatively comfortable ascent to the Giro's first uphill finish, at 1,466m.
The 125-km fifth stage from San Martino di Castrozza to the 1,844m-high Alpe di Siusi, with the 1,792m Passo Rolle on the way, is the first frightening mountain stage with a killer 25km climb, the last 10km boasting gradients of 8-10%.
Many riders won't yet be attuned to the rigours and climbers like Basso and Cunego may make their first break.
Armstrong fans hope he can show how much of his old power he has regenerated since he came out of a four-year retirement this year to bid for his first Giro and eighth Tour.
