Organisers had been forced to cancel yesterday’s queen stage, which had been scheduled to take place from Foligno to Monte San Vicino, due to heavy snow on the route.

The cancellation all but ended the hopes of climbers, such as Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, of claiming the overall race victory with today’s flat route and tomorrow’s individual time trial not benefiting them.

An early breakaway on the 210 kilometre route from Castelraimondo to Cepagatti was able to establish a lead of over three minutes by the 150km to go mark.

The six-rider group remained clear until 20km to the finish, with world champion Peter Sagan then attacking to claim the second intermediate sprint of the day.

Italy’s Daniele Bennati and Oscar Gatto joined their Slovakian team-mate in the break, with the trio of Tinkoff riders also accompanied by Etixx - Quick Step’s Italian Matteo Trentin, Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria and race leader Zdenek Stybar of the Czech Republic.

The strong move also contained Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski, the world champion in 2013, and BMC Racing’s Van Avermaet.

They established a narrow lead on the peloton and although the high pace saw the group lose riders in the closing kilometres, four members of the move remained clear heading into the uphill finish of the stage.

Sagan opted to launch the sprint against Kwiatkowski, Stybar and Van Avermaet, but the Slovakian was forced to settle for the 69th second place finish of his career, with the latter rider coming past to claim a narrow win in four hours, 34min and 14sec.

The victory saw Van Avermaet move into the overall race lead ahead of the final stage, with Stybar and Sagan lying seven and eight seconds adrift respectively.

“I knew I could win such a sprint slightly uphill, it was a stage similar to the one I won last year,” Van Avermaet said afterwards.

“I was aiming for winning a second stage win at this race so I wanted to go for this one.

“We’ll see how far I can go tomorrow, it’s only 10km long.

“I have never been in such a situation before and I’ll never be again, this is my only chance to win this race I’ve always liked.”

The final stage of the WorldTour race will see the riders tackle the 10km individual time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto, with the victor set to succeed Colombia’s Nairo Quintana, who triumphed in 2015.