PASSO FEDAIA, Italy (AFP) - Spaniard Albert Contador of Astana took the overall lead in the Tour of Italy on Sunday after Italian Emanuele Sella of CSF won the 15th stage.

Sella triumphed on the day in the rain but the plaudits went to Contador, the reigning Tour de France champion, as he managed to negotiate the mountain stage from Arabba to Passo Fedaia including five steep climbs without conceding more than a handful of seconds to Italian rivals Riccardo Ricco and Danilo Di Luca.

Mountain specialist Sella made it two wins in as many days in the Dolomites to bolster a team which lost Argentine racer Ariel Maximiliano Richeze to a positive doping test before the event.

But the team were smiling again after Sella's exploits - clad in the green of top event climber - and also a second stage place for Italian Domenico Pozzovivo.

Contador bagged the leader's pink jersey from Italy's Gabriele Bosisio, who saw his rival shred his narrow 5sec lead going into the day's action.

Sella won through after covering the 154km in 4hr 53min 24sec.

He broke away with teammate, Fortunato Baliani, as well as Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez, to lead through the gruelling Pordoi, San Pellegrino, Giau, San Tomaso Agordino and Falzarego climbs on the way to a difficult final ascent up to 2057 metres altitude at the finish.

Sella pulled away on the final climb at Fedaia to put more than two minutes between himself and Pozzovivo and Ricco , who came in third with Contador happy to come in 16sec further adrift alongside Gilberto Simoni as they finished joint fifth.