He crossed the line in 3hr 42min 09sec ahead of Belgium's Brent Van Moer of Lotto-Soudal and Italy's Simone Velasco of Gazprom-RusVelo, while Belgium's Jan Bakelants of Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux and Portugal's Nelson Oliveira of Movistar were fourth and fifth.

Part of the breakaway group, but ending 25 seconds down on the leaders, was Latvia's Emīls Liepiņš of Trek–Segafredo.

Slovenia's Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates maintained his lead in the general classification, having finished safely in the peloton just over a minute behind the stage winner.

The reigning Tour de France champion still holds a lead of one minute and 15 seconds over Belgium's Wout van Aert of Jumbo-Visma.

Spain's Mikel Landa of Team Bahrain Victorious still remains in third, three minutes down on Pogačar.

Würtz Schmidt said he was "extremely happy" with winning his first International Cycling Union WorldTour stage, while explaining the break from the pack.

"I've been fighting for this for the last five years since I was a pro - to finally win the WorldTour is a big relief," said the Danish rider.

"It was a hard start. 

"First, I tried with two other guys and that didn't work out, we didn't get away. 

"I got away a second time with this group and we worked really well together. 

"We all had in mind that we had to go hard the whole way to break the morale in the peloton. 

"We succeeded with that. 

"It was a super hard stage but I felt good when we came into the final. 

"Then on the last lap, we knew it was between us, so it was full gas from there."

The six riders made a breakaway with 140 kilometres to go, holding a gap of six minutes at one stage and holding enough over the rest of the pack.

The final stage of the 2021 Tirreno-Adriatico is set to take place tomorrow in the form of an 11.1km time trial, concluding the race in San Benedetto del Tronto.