On the 160-kilometre route from Grotte di Frasassi and Ascoli Piceno, Mäder was part of a breakaway group with 63km to go and with less than 20km until the finish, had nearly three minutes on the peloton after the group whittled down to four.

The Swiss rider's teammate Matej Mohoric was the first to break, but set up Mäder well for the final 12km.

Dutch rider Bauke Mollema of Trek–Segafredo and Italian Dario Cataldo of Movistar stuck with him, but were dropped with just a mile and a half to go as the Swiss rider went solo.

Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers attacked from the peloton behind, but could not catch the young cyclist, who won by 12 seconds over the Colombian.

Ireland's Dan Martin of Israel Start-Up Nation and Belgium's Remco Evenepoel of Deceuninck–Quick-Step finished with Bernal on 12 seconds in third and fourth, and Italy's Giulio Ciccone of Trek–Segafredo was two seconds behind in fifth.

Valter claimed the overall lead of the race, finishing 29 seconds behind the leader in 12th place.

Despite Evenepoel eating into the Hungarian's lead, he is still 11 seconds behind him, while Bernal's attack puts him into third place, 16 seconds adrift.

Russia's Aleksandr Vlasov of Astana-Premier Tech is fourth overall and 24 seconds behind, ahead of Belgium's Louis Vervaeke of Alpecin-Fenix in fifth, 25 seconds adrift.

Italian Alessandro De Marchi of Israel Start-Up Nation, who was leading the Giro yesterday, took himself out of contention after finishing nearly 25 minutes behind Mäder.

Mäder dedicated his win to his teammate, Spain's Mikel Landa, who suffered a crash yesterday, taking him out of the race.