IRELAND’S EDDIE DUNBAR has moved up to ninth in the general classification after Tuesday’s 10th stage at the Giro d’Italia.
Dunbar finished the day in 27th place in a group 51 seconds behind stage winner Magnus Cort Nielsen, and is now 2:32 behind leader Geraint Thomas in the race for the maglia rosa.
As the race resumed with a rain-sodden stage after Monday’s rest day, Thomas retained the pink jersey with no further changes in the top five since Remco Evenepoel quit the race Sunday night with Covid.
Cort was first home after his escape group managed to keep clear on an eventful 196km run from Scandiano to Viareggio.
The peloton closed to within 40 seconds of the breakaway, which also included Alessandro De Marchi and Derek Gee, but dangerously slippery road surfaces causing constant spills forced a prudent approach to the Viareggio finish line.
Cort, 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 3° Celcius on the stage’s high point of 1527m on the Passo de Radicci.
Ireland’s other rider in this year’s race, Ben Healy — who will be focusing his attention on another stage win after his victory last weekend — finished the day in 105th.
