The 30-year-old EF Education-EasyPost rider edged Canada’s Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech) and Italy’s Alessandro De Marchi (Team Jayco-AlUla) at the end of the rolling 196-km route through the Tuscan Apennines from Scandiano to Viareggio on the Mediterranean coast.

The victory completed a Grand Tour set for Cort, who won six stages in the Spanish Vuelta and two in the Tour de France.

“I’m extremely happy to complete my trilogy, but it’s been one of the hardest days I’ve spent on the bike,” Cort said.

“My radio wasn’t working because of the rain so I was never sure where the chasing peloton was. But we kept pushing hard. It was worth it. It’s hard to believe that it happened though,” he added.

The near miss was particularly painful for De Marchi, who is still seeking his first stage victory in his home Grand Tour in his seventh Giro.

In the peloton behind them, 51 seconds adrift, Geraint Thomas kept hold of the pink jersey, which he assumed on Sunday after leader and pre-race favourite Remco Evenepoel had to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19.

Australian Callum Scotson was among three more riders who quit ahead of Tuesday’s stage after testing positive and Russia’s Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) during it.

Scotson’s withdrawal is a blow for compatriot Michael Matthews as he has been an important support rider in the Jayco-AiUla team.

Thomas maintained his two-second lead over Primož Roglič with Tao Geoghegan Hart third overall, five seconds behind Ineos Grenadiers teammate Thomas.

“It was pretty cold on top of the hill and crazy in the descent,” Thomas said.

“I’m happy with getting through this stage all right. In this race anything can happen, especially with the weather.”

There were miserable conditions from the start of the stage, with rain and freezing temperatures.

It was even discussed whether to amend the route over the top of the day’s main climb, the second-category Passo delle Radici.

Team buses followed the riders for some time, in case they were needed to transport them if conditions worsened, before it was eventually decided to race the stage as normal.

However, race organisers announced that Friday’s Stage 13 to the summit finish at Crans-Montana would be shortened with the top-category climb of the Passo del Gran San Bernardo cut due to snowfall and risk of avalanches.

Australia’s top hope on the general classification, Jay Vine, is out of overall contention, saying the 10th stage is “coldest I’ve ever gotten”.

He lost 11 minutes 19 seconds and is now more than 12 minutes off the pace.

Evenepoel’s shock withdrawal meant Vine started stage 10 in 10th place overall, but the UAE Team Emirates leader imploded in the cold.

“I just got way too cold, simple as that, I think that was the coldest I’ve ever gotten, I was miserable. Complete loss of feeling in the fingers and the body didn’t respond well to it,” he posted on Instagram.

Vine also crashed during the stage, but he said that was not a factor.

“The actual damage was me freezing to the core. Just one of those days where everyone freezes. There was a reason they were looking at shortening the stage,” he said.

“The boys dropped back to help me, and we rolled turns holding the gap for a bit there, but not long after the body had nothing left, we made the tough call and just rolled in.

“Yes, obviously I’m disappointed, but at the end of the day, it’s not the end of the world. And there are more opportunities to come.”

Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) finished in the main front group and he is now Australia’s leading rider overall at 13th, two minutes 58 seconds behind Thomas.

AAP