Phil Bauhaus won the third stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico on Wednesday after coming out on top in a crash-hit bunch sprint to the line in Gualdo Tadino.

Bahrain Victorious rider Bauhaus pipped Jonathan Milan to the win after 225 kilometres of hilly, rain-hit riding which put the sprinters to the test.

Bauhaus also capitalised on a crash metres from the line thinning out the field of contenders, including Tuesday's winner and pre-stage favourite Jasper Philipsen.

"It was a hard day, the weather made it very hard... I'm more than happy to take my first win of the season," said Bauhaus.

"You don't come fresh to the sprint... Johnny is a former teammate. I saw him coming and I'm so happy."

UAE rider Juan Ayuso remains at the top of the general classification, one second ahead of home favourite Filippo Ganna.

Wednesday's stage was the longest of the week-long race, with 2,500 metres of elevation and dreadful weather making it a tough day.

Bauhaus added, "I feel really good about this victory. 1 win at WorldTour level is never easy. I’m more than happy because I was waiting for a long time for this. I’m not someone who wins ten times a year and Tirreno-Adriatico is a very big race so it’s a big thing for me to win here. I’m not a guy for the classics or the Monuments, they’re too long and too hard for me. It was long today as well but the race was quite controlled. Everyone was suffering from the cold conditions. We made a good plan with the team to fuel this day. Especially with a hard final for sprinters, we needed energy at the end. Nutrition was the key. It also wouldn’t have been possible without my team-mates, starting with Yuki [Arashiro] and Wout Poels who pulled all day. The team believed in me yesterday evening. I was doubting, I thought it was too hard for me. Normally the chances were higher for Jasper Philipsen and Tim Merlier to sprint for the win, but sometimes other guys win and I’m happy I’m that one."

Race leader Juan Ayuso said, "At the end of the stage I was up there but I had to break to avoid the crash. I was going to give it try in the sprint but I don’t if I was able to win the stage. I didn’t want to risk anything. I’m not the only one who suffered and tried to not getting cold, especially with 100km remaining. It didn’t rain so much but the road was wet and getting water from the wheels in front of you, you get soaked as if it was raining. It was really hard. At some moments, I couldn’t feel my hands but this is also part of cycling. Today’s race can affect the coming stages a lot. I’ll first try to recover from today. Maybe it wasn’t the hardest stage with the pace, but the weather makes the body tired. I feel more fatigue. Let’s hope tomorrow the weather is good so I recover from today and I have Friday and Saturday for racing hard. My confidence isn’t affected, at least not yet. The team is doing very, I’m also doing very well."

Samuele Zoccarato led the race for most of the day after breaking from the peloton early on with Jan Stockli, but the Italian was caught with just over 21km to go.

Thursday's stage is a 207km run from Arrone which starts with two tough climbs before descending to Giulianova on the Adriatic coast.