Van der Poel pulled away from a lead group with a colossal 52km to go in stormy conditions and managed to hold off race leader, Slovenia's Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates by 10 seconds in the end.

Over the 205km hilly stage from Castellalto to Castelfidardo, the Dutchman pulled out a lead of over three minutes to the group, only reeled in when the reigning Tour de France champion Pogačar attacked 17km from the line up the final ascent.

Struggling on the mountain stage yesterday, Van der Poel lost more than 20 minutes to the Slovenian in the general classification, ruling him out of the running for the blue jersey.

Although Pogačar lost a small amount of time to the Dutchman, he further extended his lead in the general classification, leaving Belgium's Wout van Aert of Jumbo-Visma in a race of his own in third, losing a further 39 seconds to the leader.

The gap between the two in the overall standings is now 1min 15sec.

A variety of riders brought themselves back into podium contention, including Colombia's Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers, who finished fifth on the road behind Italy's Fabio Felline, more than two minutes behind Van der Poel.

Belgium's Tim Wellens of Lotto–Soudal was seventh with a 2:18 gap to the leader, while Spain's Mikel Landa of Team Bahrain Victorious finished ninth, holding onto his third place in the general classification.

Landa is now exactly three minutes down on Pogačar overall and holds a 30 second advantage over Bernal in fourth and 54 over Italy's Matteo Fabro of Bora-Hansgrohe in fifth.

Tomorrow is the penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico, scheduled over a flat 169km route from Castelraimondo to Lida di Fermo.