A breakaway after 50 kilometres of the 122km stage, starting and ending in Ovada, ignited this International Cycling Union Women’s WorldTour race.

Italy’s Alice Maria Arzuffi and Spain’s Sheyla Gutierrez Ruiz made the move from the bunch and steadily built their advantage.

The duo had a lead of nearly three minutes heading into the final 20km.

Their advantage started to fall when Brand started to lead a chase, with the peloton following her lead.

Arzuffi’s hopes of potentially taking the overall race lead where ended when the gap dropped to less than 30 seconds in the final three kilometres.

Despite the best efforts of Arzuffi and Ruiz, neither rider was able to celebrate the stage victory.

The remaining riders in the peloton caught the duo in the run in to the line, with a sprint then unfolding.

Wild proved the fastest of the finishers, the Wiggle High5 rider clinching victory in a time of 3 hours 22min.

She was followed across the line by Italy’s two-time world champion Giorgia Bronzini and Dutch star Marianne Vos, the London 2012 Olympic champion.

Having finished in 10th place but on the same time as the lead group, Brand took over as the overall race leader.

It followed Team Sunweb winning yesterday’s team time trial.

Brand’s team-mate Leah Kirchmann of Canada is second in the general classification on the same time.

Overnight leader Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands is one of five of their team-mates to be three seconds back overall.

The race is due to continue tomorrow with a 132km stage in Corbetta.