Mount Etna: Australia's Rohan Dennis has relinquished the overall Giro d'Italia lead to Britain's Simon Yates, who finished second in the gruelling stage-six climb to the top of Sicily's Mount Etna.
Dennis held a one-second advantage going into the 163-kilometre stage, but fell away despite a gutsy effort on the final climb to lose his grip on the pink jersey.
Australia's Rohan Dennis, in pink, on the stage up Mount Etna.
Photo: AP
Yates overtook Chaves in the final metres but sat up on the approach to the finish line and told his teammate to cross first after the Colombian had spent the whole day in the breakaway.
That saw the 25-year-old Yates move to the top of the standings, where he now holds a 16-second advantage over Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin, with Chaves moving up to third.
Dennis (BMC Racing) is now sixth, 53 seconds behind Yates, who won the young rider classification at last year's Tour de France and becomes the fourth Briton to wear the pink jersey after Mark Cavendish, Sir Bradley Wiggins and David Millar.
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"It felt really good," Yates told Eurosport. "There was a little bit of a gap, so I took the chance.
"I said to him [Chaves] as soon as I caught him that he could take the stage. He deserved it."
Groupama-FDJ rider Thibaut Pinot finished third, 26 seconds behind the leading duo in the same group as reigning champion Dumoulin, Tour de France champion Chris Froome and UAE Team Emirates rider Fabio Aru.
Froome, who has been off the pace at times so far, is one minute 10 seconds back.
Reuters
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