Magnus Cort Nielsen beats cold and rain on stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia

The bad weather continues to be the protagonist of the Giro d'Italia in a nervous 10th stage that became very hard because of its broken route in the initial part, rain and crashes. Ideal conditions for a quality breakaway to triumph as it happened with the EF Education-EasyPost rider who won over his two fellow adventurers. Aleksandr Vlasov joined the list of abandonments among the favorites after Remco Evenepoel, who dropped out a couple of days ago.

Against all odds

The Giro d'Italia peloton was back on the road, with a 196-kilometer stage ahead between Scandiano and Viareggio where again, as in the first week, the rain was again the protagonist, adding a tremendous hardness to an already demanding route, marked by a first leg breaker and the long ascent to the Passo delle Radici, classified as second category.

The day started with several updates. On the one hand the numerous casualties due to the Covid that are added to the already known race leader Remco Evenepoel. No less than 9 riders did not start this 10th stage of the Giro d'Italia.

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On the other hand, the weather is not expected to improve and the first major consequence has been the cut known late yesterday afternoon in the tappone of next Friday with finish in Crans Montana. Faced with the danger of avalanches at the top of the Grand Saint Bernard, Cima Coppi of the race, the organization opted for plan B in which the ascent to this pass is maintained but only up to 1,500 m, where it will cross the pass through the existing tunnel there that continues to gain altitude to 1,875 m, instead of climbing to the 2,469 m of the summit of this pass.

A change that takes away some of the hardness of the stage but, as it is the first climb of the day, it does not harm the essence of what should be the queen day of this second week.

Back to today's stage, the race started with a clear change of mentality compared to the first week, at least for what it took to make the breakaway. After many attacks, riders of the quality of Magnus Cort Nielsen and Alessandro de Marchi were finally caught by the breakaway, joined by Derek Gee and Davide Bais shortly before the start of the long climb to the second category pass.

The peloton climbed this pass led by Movistar, who sought to control the race to safeguard the chances of Fernando Gaviria. However, on the other side, on the descent, with the asphalt in a precarious state because of the heavy rain, crashes and cuts became the keynote, breaking the race completely thanks to an attack by Bahrain-Victorious with Damiano Caruso at the head. Men like Gaviria or Cavendish were affected by them, having to fight to link up with the main group.

Behind, a large cut was formed, almost as numerous as the peloton that began to lose time and in which was Jay Vine, 11th overall, who thus lost his chances of achieving a good classification. Also in the news was Alekxandr Vlasov, the Bora-Hansgrohe leader who, visibly ill, dropped out of the group almost from the beginning of the stage and was confirmed to have abandoned midway through the day. He was 6th in the general classification.

After leaving the mountainous zone, the reduced main peloton, with almost all the sprinters having survived, went in pursuit of the three escapees, only three after Bais lost contact on the descent of the second pass, but the kilometers passed and the gap did not reduce at the pace it should have given the quality of the leading men who kept their hopes intact with less than 10 kilometers to go.

They reached the last kilometer with just under a minute's gap. De Marchi, opened before Gee's attack but they stopped allowing the Italian to re-enter. Control and glances in the last hundreds of meters until the favorite for the victory, Magnus Cort Nielsen launched the sprint winning easily. The Dane thus achieved the milestone of winning a stage in all three grand tours.

53 seconds later, Mads Pedersen took the group sprint, mainly to score as many points as possible rather than because there was anything at stake.

Stage 10 Classification

1. Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education-EasyPost) 04h51’15’’
2. Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech) 04h51’15’’
3. Alessandro de Marchi (Jayco-AlUla) +02’’
4. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) +51’’
5. Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) +51’’
6. Stefano Oldani (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +51’’
7. Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) +51’’
8. Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) +51’’
9. Mirco Maestri (Eolo-Kometa) +51’’
10. Filippo Fiorelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) +51’’

General Classification

1. Geraint Thomas (INEOS-Grenadiers) 39h26’33’’
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +02
3. Tao Geoghegan Hart (INEOS-Grenadiers) +05’’
4. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +22’’
5. Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) +35’’
6. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) +01’18’’
7. Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +01’52’’
8. Pavel Sivakov (INEOS-Grenadiers) +02’15’’
9. Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) +02’32’’
10. Thymen Arensman (INEOS-Grenadiers) +02’32’’