Magnus Cort Nielsen of the Education First team won a rain-sodden 10th stage of the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday 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 three degrees Celsius (37 degrees Fahrenheit) on the stage's high point of 1527m on the Passo de Radicci.

The Giro's scheduling in May frequently makes it especially vulnerable to changeable weather.

Cort Nielsen's win makes up some way for his teammate Alberto Bettiol being knocked down when someone from a team car ran out into the road towards an accident scene, without looking.

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