Denmark’s Magnus Cort won a three-man sprint finish to win stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia in Viareggio and complete a career grand slam.
The 30-year-old EF Education–EasyPost rider edged out Canada’s Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech) and Italy’s Alessandro De Marchi (Team Jayco-AlUla) to triumph in adverse weather conditions.
Cort has added his latest Grand Tour stage win to the six he has won at the Vuelta Espana and two at the Tour de France.
He is the second Dane at the 2023 Giro d’Italia to achieve a stage win in each Grand Tour after Mads Pedersen.
Cort said: “I’m extremely happy to complete my trilogy, winning a stage of the Giro d’Italia after the Tour de France and La Vuelta.
“But it’s been one of the hardest days I’ve spent on the bike. Firstly I had to get back to the front.
“Then my radio wasn’t working because of the rain so I was never sure where the chasing peloton was. But we kept pushing hard. It was worth it. It’s hard to believe that it happened though.”
The trio had been part of a four-man breakaway, which also included Italy’s Davide Bais, 60 kilometres into the 196km-stage which started in Scandiano.
After Bais fell away, the breakaway group extended their lead over the peloton to four minutes, 30 seconds with 106km to go and although that closed to just 46 seconds with 10km remaining, they held on to their advantage entering the closing stages.
Race leader Geraint Thomas, who finished over 11 minutes behind Cort, retained his two-second advantage over Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) in the general classification, with fellow Briton and Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Tao Geoghegan Hart five seconds behind in third.
Thomas took the leader’s pink jersey on Sunday after previous leader Remco Evenepoel withdrew from the race after testing positive for Covid-19.
It was Thomas’ first day in the jersey after Monday’s rest day, and he said: “It was nice but obviously not ideal conditions to be leading the Giro.
“It was a solid day with lots of attacking. It was pretty cold on top of the hill and crazy in the descent. I’m happy with getting through this stage alright. In this race anything can happen, especially with the weather.”
Belgian Evenepoel had reclaimed the pink jersey hours earlier after edging out Thomas by a second in the stage-nine time trial.
Such were the adverse weather conditions before the stage-10 start, race organisers discussed with riders whether the route would be shortened.
Freezing temperatures at the top of the main climb, the Passo delle Radici, plus high winds and rain gave cause for concern, but the stage went ahead as planned.
Russia’s Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), who started the day in overall sixth place, struggled in the early stages on Tuesday and became the ninth rider to pull out after testing positive for Covid.
