VIAREGGIO, Italy—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, who rides for Ineos Grenadiers, moved into the lead on Sunday after pre-race favorite Remco Evenepoel had to withdraw after testing positive for the coronavirus. Evenepoel had a 45-second advantage over Thomas.
Other riders have also had to abandon after returning positive tests for COVID-19, including Domenico Pozzovivo and Rigoberto Urán.
Thomas maintained his two-second lead over Primož Roglič after they both finished safely in the peloton, in terrible conditions, 51 seconds behind Cort.
Tao Geoghegan Hart was 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 set for Cort, who won six stages in the Spanish 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.
However, race organizers announced that Friday’s Stage 13 to the summit finish at Crans-Montana would be shortened with the top-category climb of the Passo del Gran San Bernardo cut due to snowfall and risk of avalanches.
Wednesday’s 11th stage is a 219-kilometer (136-mile) route from Camaiore to Tortona, with three lower-classification climbs.
The Giro ends in Rome on May 28.
Image credits: AP
