Alberto Contador back in pink after Vasil Kiryienka wins ITT

One day after he unexpectedly conceded the maglia rosa to Fabio Aru of Italy, Tinkoff-Saxo's Contador roared back onto the summit of the race after an extraordinary performance in a sodden 59.4km time trial from Treviso to Valdobbiadene.

Despite finishing 14 seconds behind stage 14 winner Kiryienka of Belarus, Contador now leads Aru by 2min 28secs in the overall standings after the Astana tyro struggled on a technical and long race against the clock.

Surprise package Andrey Amador of Costa Rica moved into third place on GC, 3:36 down on Contador, after the Movistar climber finished 14th on a day that hammered the final nail in Richie Porte's Giro coffin.

Team Sky's Porte finished outside the top 50 to drop almost nine minutes behind Contador ahead of the final week in the mountains.

Kiryienka’s time of 1:17.52 over a course that culminated in two testing climbs proved unbeatable on the day – thanks in part to a favourable tailwind for the earlier riders.

"It’s a really special victory for me – I do well against the clock but I have not had a big victory like this for a while,” said 33-year-old Kiryienka, a triple national time trial champion whose two previous wins on the Giro came in 2008 and 2011.

"It seemed like one of those days when it was raining and horrible – but it worked out well for me, although it was a difficult wait for the maglia rosa and the arrival of Alberto Contador.”

The penultimate rider to roll down the ramp, Contador was more than a minute down on Kiryienka at the first time check but improved in the hilly portion of the course before crossing the line just 14 seconds in arrears.

Compatriot Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) finished two seconds faster for second place on a day that Astana’s Dario Cataldo and Mikel Landa both dropped out of the top five, alongside Tinkoff-Saxo's Roman Kreuziger.

Colombian Rigoberto Uran – winner of last year’s 42km individual time trial in the Barolo wine region in Piedmont – could not rediscover the form that saw him finish runner-up in the past two Giros, despite a special new aerodynamic haircut.

Uran, of Etixx-QuickStep, finished the day in 23rd place but rose to fourth place on GC, 4:14 down on Contador. Belgium’s Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Soudal) completes the new-look top five at 4:17 after posting the seventh best time on Saturday.

The big loser once again was Porte, whose chances of a maiden Grand Tour win were left in tatters after the Australian national time trial champion toiled to 55th place, 4:20 down on team-mate Kiryienka. It remains to be seen if he continues the race.

"It hasn’t been a great Giro for Richie but we must not forget that the team has now had a couple of good results,” said Kiryienka with a nod to his victory and Elia Viviani’s stage two win.

Porte is now languishing in 17th place in the overall standings, 8:52 down on Contador – a rider he trailed by just 20 seconds at the start of what has proved to be a horror week for the Tasmanian.

"The GC is probably too hard now but we will be there fighting for stage wins,” said Kiryienka. Sky’s best placed rider is now Leopold Konig of the Czech Republic in tenth, 5:35 down on Contador.

Aru, the first Sardinian to wear the famous maglia rosa, relinquished the jersey after finishing the longest time trial of his career 3:01 down on Kiryienka to drop more almost two-and-a-half minutes behind his rival Contador.

"I’m really happy – although my legs are killing me,” Contador candidly admitted after his third-place ride. "The wind change was very difficult and I wasn’t sure how I would go today.”

If Contador was unsure, the same could not be said about his Tinkoff-Saxo manager Oleg Tinkov. The flamboyant Russian told Eurosport that he "almost got a heart attack” when he witnessed his leader’s crash in Friday’s finale on a television in his office in Moscow.

"But I was not surprised about his performance today,” Tinkov added. "I don’t know why anyone doubted Alberto. He would have won today if the wind had not changed.

"Astana will give us a hard time in the mountains but Alberto is very strong and he doesn’t have to attack. But we all know Alberto – he will attack anyway.”

The Giro d’Italia hits the high mountains on Sunday with the gruelling 165km stage 15 from Marostica to Madonna di Campiglio, which culminates in back-to-back first category climbs including the summit finish where the late Marco Pantani recorded his last ever victory in 1999.