The pair mounted a late attack to join the leading breakaway of Georg Preidler and Darwin Atapuma, with Colombian Chaves then sprinting to victory in 6 hours 6min 16sec.

Dutchman Kruijswijk, riding for LottoNL-Jumbo, was second on the same time but now has a 41-second lead in the overall classification.

He takes over the famous Maglia Rosa jersey from Costa Rica's Andrey Amador who was dropped on the final climb.

The Movistar cyclist only took over the leader's pink jersey from Luxembourg's Bob Jungels yesterday but lost nearly four minutes and has slid out of contention.

Kruijswijk has jumped up from fifth and his nearest challenger is now Astana's Italian Vincenzo Nibali, who is looking to win a second general classification at the Giro after triumphing in 2013.

The home hopeful, however, also fell away after being in contention at the start of the final climb and is 41 seconds behind Kruijswijk.

It was a poor day for Spanish contender Alejandro Valverde who lost more than three minutes after being dropped on the last climb.

He still remains fourth overall, behind Chaves, but is 3:06 adrift which looks unassailable.

Chaves is 1:32 behind Kruijswijk.

Kruijswijk told Eurosport: "I came here with big ambitions and to go good in the general classification, but to have the pink jersey is something else.

"I cannot believe I have the pink jersey now.

"I'm really happy.

"This morning we made a plan and I said I would try to follow Nibali and Valverde.

"I knew Nibali was going to attack and I was really good behind him, so I thought, 'okay maybe I can do something on my own today'.

"I tried in the final and I think it was the right timing.

"Luckily Esteban came with me and we could work together a little bit."

Today's route followed 210 kilometres from Alpago to Corvara.

The Giro will continue tomorrow with a 10.8km mountain time trial. 

In the United States, Dutch cyclist Marianne Vos claimed stage three of the Tour of California.

The race forms part of the Women's World Tour.