The Movistar rider retained the pink jersey as she crossed the line in 3hr 3min 16sec to get the better of Italian duo Marta Cavalli and Elisa Longo Borghini who clocked in 59 seconds and 1min 38sec later respectively.

Van Vleuten now has 2:13 separating her and Cavalli in the general classification with two stages remaining.

"It was hard," Van Vleuten said at the finish.

"I wanted to make more difference today, so I did, I went.

"I had a good lead-out from my team mate Jelena Erić, and then I went.

"It was quite tough to drop them, but I knew that if I continued, my endurance and my hours of training would help.

"Then in the last five kilometres I had a gap on Cavalli, and the gap became bigger."

Speaking about her crash Van Vleuten said: "I made a stupid mistake on the descent.

"So I feel a bit of disappointment today that I made such a stupid and unnecessary mistake - sorry, mum, watching me - but I’m all good, nothing happened.

"But it was unnecessary so I feel a bit stupid for that.

"For the rest, we made the Maglia Rosa more sure."

After yesterday's mountain top finish, the cyclists endured another difficult day with 2,333 metres of climbing over 104 kilometres across the Trentino region of Italy.

Van Vleuten's crash on one of the final corners of the final descent threatened to jeopardise her victory, but she recovered quickly to claim a second stage win of this year's race.