The 33-year-old, a bronze medallist in the World Championship road race in 2011 and winner of 10 Tour de France stages, won stage five from Praia a Mare to Benevento on May 11 and backed that up today as the race made its way from Sulmona to Foligno.

Dutch race leader Tom Dumoulin, meanwhile, came home in the peloton to keep hold of the Maglia Rosa jersey.

Greipel beat off a host of other sprinters as his Lotto Soudal team won a third stage in a row following Tim Wellens' solo victory yesterday.

Another German, Marcel Kittel, had been among the favourites but a mechanical problem saw him slip out of contention with five kilometres to go of the 210km stage.

The 28-year-old was forced to change bikes and did not contest the sprint.

Swiss rider Stefan Kung attempted a breakaway in the final 20km but was reeled in to set up the sprint finish. 

Greipel was timed at 5 hours 1min 8sec with Italians Giacomo Nizzolo and Sacha Modolo finishing second and third respectively on the same time.

Dumoulin has a 26 second lead over second placed Dane, Jakob Fuglsang, in the overall classification.

The Giant-Alpecin rider's time currently stands at 29:23:23.

Russia's Ilnur Zakarin is 28 seconds shy of the leader in third place.

The Giro will continue tomorrow with a 169km stage from Foligno to Arezzo.