The 139-kilometre stage from L’Aquila to Foligno offered riders a final test before the opening rest day of the race.

Sagan's Bora-Hansgrohe team worked hard during the stage, focusing on climbs during the second half of the day to put pressure on the Slovakian stars' rivals.

Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen, Italy’s Giacomo Nizzolo and stage two's winner Tim Merlier of Belgium were among those to lose contact on the climbs.

Italy’s Elia Viviani and Davide Cimolai were able to remain in contact, along with Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria.

The latter proved Sagan’s main challenger in the sprint finish, but the three-time world champion came past Gaviria in the closing metres to triumph in 3 hours 10min 56sec.

Gaviria and Cimolai completed the podium on the same time as the winner.

Sagan was able to celebrate a maiden sprint victory at the Giro d’Italia.

He earned a stage win from a breakaway at last year’s race, which marked his first participation at the Grand Tour.

"I’m very happy and I'd like to thank the whole team, they did some wonderful work on the last two climbs," said Sagan, who now leads the points classification.

"They kept the race under control.

"Maciej Bodnar and Daniel Oss positioned me in the last curve so I could sprint for the win.

"With the stage victory, the Maglia Ciclamino arrived but it won’t be easy to keep it.

"We have only done half of the Giro and the hardest half awaits us.

"In any case, I’m happy to ride the Giro again.

"I like racing in Italy."

Colombia’s Egan Bernal remains in the overall race lead following the Ineos Grenadiers' rider's impressive stage win yesterday.

His advantage is now 14 seconds over Remco Evenepoel, after the Belgian rider earned a bonus second in an intermediate sprint.

Russia’s Alexsandr Vlasov heads into the rest day in third place, 22 seconds off the race lead.