(Reuters) - Italy had not seen one of their own wear the pink jersey in the Giro d'Italia in four years until Saturday when XDS Astana's Diego Ulissi took the Maglia Rosa and he will proudly wear it when he rides through his home region of Tuscany on Sunday.

Ulissi came third in stage eight but his performance was enough to take the pink jersey from Slovenian Primoz Roglic as the Italian built up a slender 12-second lead over his teammate Lorenzo Fortunato, with Roglic a further five seconds back.