Rohan Dennis lost the pink jersey and Mitchelton-Scott enjoyed one of their finest moments, in mixed fortunes for Australian cycling at the Giro d'Italia.
Dennis lost touch with the leaders, despite his gutsy effort on the tough climb to the summit finish of stage six at Sicily's Mt Etna.
The Adelaide rider had led by one second for four days and he dropped to sixth overall.
But as Dennis faltered, the Australian Mitchelton-Scott team seized the Giro initiative.
Their British rider Simon Yates is the new race leader after finishing second in the 163km stage.
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Yates overtook Colombian teammate Esteban 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.
Yates, 25, now leads a Grand Tour for the first time.
He holds a 16-second advantage over Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin, the defending Giro champion, with Chaves moving up to third.
Dennis (BMC Racing) is 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.
"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."
Mitchelton-Scott are yet to win a Grand Tour and the Yates-Chaves double act on Mt Etna is one of the highlights of their six-year history.
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.
Dennis was far from despondent at losing the pink jersey.
He is on a long-term project to transition from a time trial specialist into becoming an overall contender for the three-week Grand Tours - the Giro, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana.
"Nothing changes after today. Obviously, I don't have the pink jersey but that's not an issue for me," he said.
"I knew that was going to happen eventually. I was hoping not today and that I would get a little bit more confidence from the race, but there is still time.
"I am not that far behind the leaders."
