Magnus Cort won a wet and cold 10th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday and Geraint Thomas kept hold of the pink jersey.
Thomas moved into the lead on Sunday after Remco Evenepoel had to withdraw after testing positive for the coronavirus. Other riders have also had to abandon after returning positive tests for COVID-19, including Domenico Pozzovivo and Rigoberto Uran.
Thomas maintained his two-second lead over Primoz Roglic after they both finished safely in the peloton, in terrible conditions, 51 seconds behind Cort. Tao Geoghegan Hart is third overall, five seconds behind his teammate Thomas.
Cort edged Derek Gee and Alessandro De Marchi at the end of the rolling 196-kilometer route through the Tuscan Apennines from Scandiano to Viareggio on the Mediterranean coast. All three were part of a breakaway.
The victory completed a Grand Tour treble for Cort, who won six stages in the Vuelta and two in the Tour de France.
The near miss was particularly painful for De Marchi, who is still seeking his first stage victory in his home Grand Tour in his seventh Giro.
There were miserable conditions from the start of the stage, with rain and freezing temperatures.
It was even discussed whether to amend the route over the top of the day’s main climb, the second-category Passo delle Radici. Team buses followed the riders for a while in case they were needed to transport them if conditions worsened, before it was eventually decided to race the stage as normal.
Wednesday’s 11th stage is a 219-kilometer route from Camaiore to Tortona, with three lower-classification climbs.
