The opening mountain stage of the race saw the peloton stay together for the early kilometres of the route, but riders began to chance their arm on the penultimate climb of the day.

A solo attack by Germany’s Trixi Worrack, who returned to competition earlier this month after losing a kidney in a crash at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, proved unsuccessful.

However Stevens was able to join a group of favourites in moving clear of the rest of the peloton towards the conclusion of the second stage of the International Cycling Union (UCI) Women’s WorldTour race.

The American, who broke the UCI Women’s Hour Record earlier this year, eventually moved clear of Italian home favourite Elisa Longo Borghini to claim the stage win in a time of 2hr, 48min and 26sec.

Borghini finished on the same time as the Boel Dolmans rider to end as the runner-up, while Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma and the United States Mara Abbott were two and three seconds adrift.

The overall race leader Megan Guarnier had been distanced by the four in the closing stages and eventually ended 24 seconds adrift.

It proved enough for Stevens to claim the pink jersey, with the American now two seconds clear of Niewiadoma, while Guarnier is a further 16 seconds down.

Tomorrow will see the peloton tackle a 120km route from Montagnana to Lendinara.