The sixth stage was shortened from its original length of to . This was still the race's second-longest stage, and it featured a breakaway which shook up the race standings. Eleven riders finished nearly twelve minutes in front of the peloton, and reigning Italian national road race champion Giovanni Visconti assumed the race lead, by a margin of less than one second over fellow breakaway member Matthias Russ. Russ had begun the stage 13 seconds ahead of Visconti in the overall classification, but with Visconti gaining seven seconds on Russ at the finish line and six in bonification on the stage's intermediate sprint, the young Italian became the next to wear the pink jersey. Visconti and his team ably defended the jersey for nine days, keeping it through the hilly seventh and eighth stages, as well as in the individual time trial in stage 11 and in three flat stages. Visconti eventually lost the lead on stage 14, the Giro's first stage categorized as high mountain, as he finished more than eighteen minutes behind stage winner Emanuele Sella. The race lead passed to Gabriele Bosisio after that stage, but he was unable to hold it the next day, finishing fifteen minutes behind Sella, again the stage winner. It was on this stage that Alberto Contador took the lead that he would never relinquish.
