Ayuso pounces to win Giro stage seven, Roglic takes pink jersey

Spain's Juan Ayuso made his move on the climb to the finish to win stage seven of the Giro d'Italia on Friday, his first Grand Tour stage success, with Primoz Roglic moving into the overall lead.

The first mountain stage of the race, a 168km ride from Castel di Sangro to Tagliacozzo, came down to Ayuso having the legs to get away from his rivals in the final 400 metres, with his UAE Team-Emirates colleague Isaac del Toro coming second.

"It's my fourth Grand Tour, and especially in the two Vueltas a Espana I raced I was sometimes very close, but I never managed to pull it off," Ayuso said.

"So to finally do it today in my first Giro d'Italia is something super special that I will always remember," the 22-year-old added.

Colombian Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was third, denying Roglic (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) a place on the podium, but the Slovenian did take the leader's pink jersey from Mads Pedersen, with the Dane losing touch on the final climb.

The stage was seen as the first real test for the general classification. Pedersen had been expected to relinquish his hold on the pink jersey, with the race having favoured the sprinters up until now, and so it proved.

There was no easing into the stage, with the riders climbing from the start, and tackling another two classified climbs before the steep ascent to the finish.

An early breakaway of seven riders opened up a gap of four minutes, but their lead came down rapidly. They made it to the start of the final 12km climb before finally getting caught five kilometres from the finish.

Pedersen repaid the work done by his Lidl-Trek teammates, who helped him to three stage wins, by putting in plenty of work at the front of the chasing peloton, to give Giulio Ciccone and Mathias