The 27-year-old had formed part of a large 18-rider breakaway in the early kilometres of the fifth stage of the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour race, which is often known as the Tour of the Basque Country.

Rosa launched an unlikely bid for victory with over 100 kilometres until the finish, but climbed impressively to remain elusive to the chasing pack, who proved unable to claw him back.

By the time the Italian reached the conclusion of the route, his advantage had stood at over three minutes.

It allowed Rosa the opportunity to dismount his bike and lift it above his head, as he crossed the line in a winning time of four hours, 19min and 19sec.

In the battle for the overall victory, The Netherlands’ Wilco Kelderman proved unable to preserve his narrow four second lead over Colombia’s Sergio Henao, with the LottoNL-Jumbo’s time in the leader’s jersey drawing to a close after one day.

Kelderman had taken the jersey from Spain’s Mikel Landa yesterday, but the Team Sky rider had recovered sufficiently from his efforts to lead an attack in the closing kilometres of the race.

He was eventually caught as the main contenders reached the final climb of the day at Arrate, with five kilometres to the finish.

Spain’s Alberto Contador and Henao were able to move away from their rivals to end 3:13 adrift of the stage winner’s time, with the latter taking second.

Team Sky’s Henao moved into the race lead as a result of the move, with Tinkoff’s Contador lying just six seconds further back as he looks to win the race for the fourth time.

France’s Thibaut Pinot and defending champion Joaquim Rodríguez of Spain worked well in the closing metres to limit their losses, with the duo now 10 and 12 seconds behind Henao.

The winner of the overall classification will be decided tomorrow when the 16.5km individual time trila in Eibar draws to a close.