Giro d’Italia 2023: Magnus Cort wins Stage 10 from breakaway, Geraint Thomas survives cold and wet day in pink

For the second time in this Giro d’Italia, a powerful Danish sprinter completed a clean-sweep of Grand Tour stage wins after Magnus Cort (EF Education-EastPost) followed in the footsteps of compatriot Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) in Stage 10 at Viareggio. Cort got the better of fellow escapees Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech) of Canada and the Italian veteran Alessandro De Marchi (Team Jayco-AlUla) to take an historic win on a day where heavy rain and sub-zero temperatures threatened to see the race neutralised.

Ad Once the lumpy 192km stage from Scandiano was given the green light by the race organisers, Cort was a late addition to the breakaway alongside Italy’s Davide Bais (Eolo-Kometa) after bridging over to De Marchi and Gee ahead of the first of two categorised climbs. Giro d'Italia‘Is he winding me up?’ — Thomas thought Evenepoel's positive Covid result was a ‘joke’YESTERDAY AT 15:58 The seemingly interminable slog up the freezing Passo delle Radici took its toll on the peloton with numerous sprinters finding themselves distanced, as well as the struggling figure of Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) who soon added to the roll call of riders to withdraw from the race with illness.

The travails of the peloton played into the hands of the leading quartet, whose gap peaked at almost five minutes. Lack of cohesion behind swung the pendulum in the favour of the escapees even after they lost the blue jersey of Bais once the conqueror of the Gran Sasso in Stage 5 dropped back after extending his lead in the king of the mountains competition.

The gap dropped to just 1’15” with 20km remaining but the group behind was only 50-strong and the leading trio had the benefit of flat roads and a strong tailwind. It was De Marchi