Magnus Cort Nielsen of the Education First team won a rain-sodden 10th stage of the Giro d’Italia yesterday after his escape group beat home the peloton on an eventful 196km run from Scandiano to Viareggio.
As the race resumed after Monday’s rest day, Welshman Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers retained the pink jersey with no further changes in the top five since Remco Evenepoel quit the race Sunday night with Covid.
Cort Nielsen, who sports a handlebar moustache, also has wins on the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana.
A high-quality escape group featuring Alessandro De Marchi of Jayco-AlUla and Derek Gee of Israel Premier Tech got away and stubbornly refused to relent.
The peloton closed to within 40 seconds of the trio but dangerously slippery road surfaces causing constant spills forced a prudent approach to the Viareggio finish line.
The affable Dane who lit up the Tour of France in 2022 romping through Denmark in the king of the mountains jersey, left his sprint until last in a three-way cat and mouse at the line.
Another Dane, Mads Pedersen, won the sprint from the pink jersey group 51 seconds down while the rest of the bedraggled peloton came in 11 minutes adrift with Australian Jay Vine definitively out of the running after starting the day in the top 10.
The race conditions were brutal on the 151 riders, down from an initial 176, as heavy showers, gusts of blustery wind and temperatures as unseasonably low as 3C (37F) on the stage’s high point of 1,527m on the Passo de Radicci.
This year’s Giro d’Italia has been robbed of its most challenging climb as organisers told AFP yesterday that there is too much snow covering the Great-Saint-Bernard Pass.
The cyclists were due to tackle the 2,469m mount on Friday’s 13th stage but instead will ride through the tunnel which is 600m lower down on the way to the finish in the Swiss municipality of Crans-Montana.
The 2,304m Tre Cime di Lavaredo - where the 19th stage reaches a climax on May 26 - takes over the mantle of ‘Cima Coppi’ (named in honour of the legendary five-time champion Fausto Coppi) as the highest climb of this year’s edition.
The Giro’s scheduling in May makes it especially vulnerable to the variable moods of the weather.
The heavy snowfalls in the Alps in recent days will make the third and final week of the race particularly challenging as it is dominated by climbs.
The penultimate stage could be of special concern to race chiefs - a time-trial on a narrow road climbing to a finish at Monte Lussari some 1,766m high.
This comes as a second blow in a matter of days for Giro organisers with overall leader and race favourite Remco Evenepoel withdrawing on Sunday due to a positive test for Covid.
The Belgian was not obliged to withdraw due to a positive test - it is at the team’s discretion whether a rider carries on or not as the Covid health protocol has been dropped.