The two riders attacked with around 90 kilometres remaining of the hilly 170.3km stage from Assisi to Tivoli.

Banks and Bujak worked together to establish an advantage of nearly six minutes over the peloton, which gradually reduced as they approached the finishing town.

The two riders turned from allies to rivals with the stage victory on offer.

Banks attacked on the final climb of the day, which featured a 10 per cent incline on cobbled roads.

The Equipe Paule Ka rider proved strong enough to pull away from Bujak to secure the stage win.

Banks earned victory in a time of 4 hours, 27min and 21sec, with Bujak ending seven seconds adrift as the runner-up.

It marked the second successive edition of the Giro Rosa where Banks has earned a victory from a breakaway, having achieved the feat on stage eight last year.

Race leader Annemiek van Vleuten strengthened her grip on the pink jersey by finishing third on the stage.

The Dutch star moved clear of the peloton on the final climb to finish 1min 10sec behind Banks.

Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma completed the top five on the stage, with the duo finishing 12 and 15 seconds behind Van Vleuten.

Niewiadoma’s performance was enough to see her rise to second in the standings, with Dutch star Anna van der Breggen losing 37 seconds to the Canyon-SRAM Racing rider.

Van Vleuten now leads the general classification by 1:56 over Niewiadoma.

Van der Breggen, a two-time winner of the race, now lies 2:03 behind the race leader in third.

Van Vleuten is targeting a third consecutive Giro Rosa title.

Victory would put Van Vleuten level with fellow Dutch star Marianne Vos and Nicole Brändli of Switzerland on three Giro Rosa triumphs.

Only Fabiana Luperini has won the event more times than Vos and Brändli, with the Italian having triumphed five times during her career.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) Women's World Tour race is set to continue tomorrow with a 110.3km hilly stage in Terracina.