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Australian road cyclist Lucas Hamilton has underlined his status as one of the country's emerging stars with a maiden WorldTour stage win in Italy.

Emerging Australian rider Lucas Hamilton has notched a maiden WorldTour victory, prevailing in a two-man sprint to win the fourth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico.

The Mitchelton-Scott talent burst onto the scene at least year's Giro d'Italia and, after being held back from the Tour de France, showed he'd be a threat again when the second Grand Tour event begins next month.

The 24-year-old powered through the Italian mountains and attacked on the high-speed descent before blowing by Fausto Masnada in a two-man sprint for the win.

"It's my first WorldTour win so I am super happy," the Victorian said.

"I just hung on over that final climb and ... when we got back on, I saw my own opportunity and with the speed and momentum we had I was able to get away.

"On paper Masnada is probably faster than me so I was a bit worried about that and tried to make him do the last 500 metres or so and that worked in my favour in the end."

Michael Woods of Canada crossed third in the 194km route through the hills of Umbria and earned a five-second bonus to increase his overall lead.

Hamilton moved up to fourth overall, 27 seconds behind the leader but ahead of 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas in sixth.

The eight-day race, which was rearranged from March because of the coronavirus pandemic, ends Monday with an individual time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto that should favour Thomas.