With 500m to go in today's first mountain stage, Daniel Moreno launched one of his trademark attacks and for a brief moment it seemed that he would save Katusha's disastrous Giro d'Italia. Having underestimated the final steep ramp, however, he faded back but the result boosted his confidence significantly.

The first true mountain stage brought out the best in Team Katusha Daniel Moreno. With less than 500 m to go, Moreno put in a searing attack to overtake leader Pierre Rolland, but it was just a little too soon to hold all the way to the uphill finish line.

“I didn’t think the final climb would be quite so hard and I wanted so badly to win," he said. "“Victory” was in my head the entire time and finally, I can admit I just went too early. It looked like we were leaving it too late to catch Arredondo and Rolland but we went very hard on the first climb and we felt very tired so it took awhile to bring them back.”

Moreno’s attack set off a flurry of others as Robert Kiserlovski lit out for the finish line, but was soon brought back himself, this time by Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) who went on to earn his second stage win. Second place went to Kiserlovski (Trek Factory Racing) and Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) rounded out the top three after almost five hours of racing.

“I have to say that overall this was good for my confidence today and also for the entire team. After what happened in Cassino when we lost three riders, team morale was low," Moreno said. "But the Giro goes on and now we look for stage victories. I hope soon to be able to dedicate a victory to Vicioso and the others.”

Katusha’s Eduard Vorganov made the day-long break and liked how his legs felt on the first day of big climbs:

“It was mine and Belkov’s job to go in the break. José told us that Orica would never control the race today so there was a good chance that the break could go until the end and then we see that Arredondo was only caught right near the end.

"Personally I am very happy with how I feel on the bike. I usually suffer on the first mountain stage of a grand tour, but today I had really good feelings. It was bad luck that my group included some better climbers and our gap didn’t grow big enough, but I’m happy about the day.”

Stage 8 at 179 km began in Foligno and ended uphill in Montecopiolo on Eremo Madonna del Faggio. Vorganov’s ten-rider break went clear from the start and included  Trek’s Julián Arredondo. The Colombian eventually attacked from the break in a solo move, chased by Rolland, and was eventually caught and passed by the Frenchman with under 2 km to go. The chasing group of GC riders kept increasing the pace and with 1,2 km to go the attacks with Moreno’s effort one of the most impressive in today’s stage.

The Giro saw a new maglia rosa on Saturday as Cadel Evans slipped on the pink jersey with a commanding 57-second lead to Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

The climbers have a second chance to show their strength on Sunday. The second uphill finish ends in after 172 km at the popular ski station of Sestola.