Race leader Mads Pedersen claimed his third victory in the opening five stages of the Giro d’Italia as he won a reduced bunch sprint on Wednesday.

Italian Edoardo Zambanini of the Bahrain Victorious team almost caught Pedersen on the line but had to settle for second on a hilly stage five, with Britain’s Tom Pidcock in third.

Denmark’s Pedersen slipped back in the slimmed-down peloton on the final climb as team-mate Mathias Vacek set a punishing pace, but the Lidl-Trek rider worked his way back to the front on the flat in the final couple of kilometres before launching his winning sprint on the uphill finish.

Q36.5’s Pidcock threatened to come past with 50m to go, but ran out of legs, and 29-year-old Pedersen had enough strength to hold off the late charge of Zambanini.

“The last 20km were unbelievably hard, I was really suffering on that last climb,” Pedersen said.

“I was behind but I knew it was still possible. But I really got tired chasing Mathias from behind. Thankfully I still had a little bit in the tank to win the sprint.”

Pedersen extended his lead in the general classification to 17 seconds over Primoz Roglic, and holds a commanding advantage in the points classification as well.

With Thursday’s stage also looking like a potential sprint finish he could carry the pink jersey for another couple of days, but with the first mountain stage looming on Friday he is likely to then lose the overall lead to one of the general classification contenders.