Magnus Cort (EF-Education-EasyPost) outsprinted his breakaway rivals to win stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia in Viareggio.
The Danish rider now has stage wins in the Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta a España to his name.
After a long day riding in driving rain, Cort timed his final kick for the line to perfection to power past Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) and Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco-AIUla) who took second and third respectively.
Speaking to the media post-stage, Cort explained that he had been forced to ride on instinct for much of the run in after his radio had been damaged by the rain.
“Today was such a hard day,” Cort said. “I think it was one of the hardest stages I’ve ever done on a bike. To end up with a win is unbelievable, at times I was sitting out there in the cold, so confused that I didn’t know what was going on.”
“I don’t know what happened, my radio wasn’t working. I think it got some water in it, so I didn’t have much information,” he added. “We were pushing all day.. it was a big fight to get in the breakaway."
“We wanted to push to the end of the stage already really early at kilometre 90. We wanted to see if we could break the peloton and make the sprinters stop chasing. We got a bit of a time gap, but not enough so they kept chasing us," he explained.
“We didn’t have much choice other than to keep pushing. I can’t really remember if I’ve done a stage like this before, pushing all day in the hills… three or four guys just giving all you have for four or five hours, it was a very tough day.”
De Marchi and Gee were part of an early breakaway that established itself not long after the flag had dropped. The duo would eventually push on as the breakaway headed towards the category two Passo delle Radici climb and were soon joined by Cort and Davide Bais (Eolo-Kometa).
Bais would then fade as they crested the climb, leaving the trio to push on ahead to Viareggio.
After a crash on the descent from the Passo delle Radici, involving Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), a split would soon form in the peloton. Vine was in the third group on the road and would lose time on his rivals in the overall standings.
A handful of the sprinters, including Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) were left in the group containing race leader Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). Cavendish’s Astana teammate Gianni Moscon briefly reduced the gap to the breakaway trio, although Cort, De Marchi and Gee maintained the upper hand.
As the finish approached, it soon became apparent that the breakaway’s gap of around 40 seconds would be enough. Gee was the first of the three to attack, looking to go long for the line. Cort remained calm, gradually pulling himself across to the Canadian. De Marchi was the next to go, although he would rapidly fade.
Cort then timed his jump to perfection, opening up his sprint with the line in sight to pass Gee and De Marchi with ease to take his first ever Giro stage win. His win gave EF their second in a matter of days after Ben Healy’s win in Fossombrone last weekend.
Meanwhile Geraint Thomas finished safely in the remnants of the main field to officially take over the lead at the top of the general classification.
RESULTS GIRO D'ITALIA STAGE TEN: SCANDIANO - VIAREGGIO (196km)
General Classification after stage ten
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