Dutch cycling star Annamiek van Vleuten has stamped her authority on the Giro Rosa, shredding the field in stage five and creating a significant overall lead.
The leader of the Australian Mitchelton-Scott team won the Queen stage of the only Grand Tour in women's cycling by nearly three minutes.
That gives van Vleuten a healthy lead of 2min 16secs in her title defence with five stages left.
Stage six is a steep 12km uphill time trial and van Vleuten, the reigning world champion in the discipline, is expected to consolidate her advantage.
As Australian Amanda Spratt, who finished the stage fifth, patrolled the main chase group her teammate van Vleuten attacked at the bottom of the 10km climb to the summit finish.
The 100km fifth stage from Ponte in Valtellina to Passo Fraele was supposed to finish with the iconic Passo di Gavia climb, but the route was shortened because of snow and safety concerns.
Still, it was always going to be a decisive day and van Vleuten, who was seventh overall going into the stage, took advantage.
"After they took the Gavia out I knew it would be harder to take a lot of time; I knew I needed to attack from the bottom to try and get as much time as possible so it was 10km of suffering," van Vleuten said in a team statement.
"I've very proud to wear the pink jersey again .... it's very special and it is a very big goal of mine to win the Giro Rosa this year.
"I'm super happy that I could use my legs today, it has been a bit of a waiting game the past days but today finally I could have a go.
"I can sleep a little relaxed tonight knowing it's some more seconds gained and I know now I have good legs. It's more than expected."
Polish rider Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) holds second spot overall with Spratt fourth overall at 3:12.
The biggest threat for van Vleuten is compatriot Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans), who is fifth overall at 3:24.
