Cort wins stage 3 in Valencia

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Magnus Cort (Orica-Scott) had the best measure of a chaotic finish in Riba-Roja de Turia on stage 3 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, beating Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) to take out his first win of the season.

Cort bided his time, sitting on the wheels of the other trains that had formed in the twisting finale. With just over 50 metres to the line, the Dane jumped clear and held off a chasing Bouhanni.

Direct Energie had done a lot of work in the final kilometres, but Bryan Coquard was only able to manage third place.

Greg Van Avermaet and his BMC team stayed out of trouble to keep hold of the leader’s yellow jersey ahead of his teammates Ben Hermans and Manuel Senni.

How it happened

It was the rain that battered the riders on stage 2, but today it was the wind. Unlike the Dubai Tour, the weather wasn’t quite bad enough to prevent the riders from giving it a go, but it made large sections of the undulating route more challenging with a headwind giving everyone, particularly the breakaway, a hard time of it.

Given that they were in for a difficult day in the wind, the peloton was much happier to let the break go early and give themselves a little bit of respite.

Four riders went up the road after just six kilometres. They were Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Aitor Gonzalez (Euskadi-Basque Country), Daniel Lopez (Burgos BH), Tyler Williams (Israel Cycling Academy). As they edged clear, Benjamin Perry (Israel Cycling Academy) and Julio Alberto Amores (Inteja Dominican Cycling Team) joined them.

The gap steadily climbed to four minutes after 40 kilometres, but the peloton wasn't going to give them any more time, with BMC Racing and Cofidis taking up the chase. At the halfway point, they had split the breakaway's advantage in half, and their time out front seemed numbered.

The force of the chase split the peloton into two, and as the front group came within a minute of the escapees, two riders saw an opportunity to make their own fortunes. LottoNl-Jumbo’s Jos van Emden and Elmar Reinders (Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij) quickly linked up with the six out front.

Van Emden didn’t wait for long to kick again, dropping his new companions with 30 kilometres to go. With an opportunity for a sprint, the peloton was not going to give Van Emden much room to manoeuvre, and with 13 kilometres remaining, they had him in their sights.

It was all back together with 10 kilometres to go, and the pace knocked off a little, giving the bunch a chance to catch their breath before the sprint. After his winning move on stage 2, Tony Martin (Katusha) had a dig up the road, but he wasn’t given much ground before he was reeled back in, the peloton having learned their lesson the day before.

More attacks came but, by this point, it seemed inevitable that the bunch sprint was going to come. Direct Energie manned the front of the peloton right into the final kilometre, with Coquard sitting safely a few wheels back. When unleashed by his team, however, Coquard didn’t have the legs to keep up with his rivals.

Cort, who had been keeping himself safe around seventh in line, moved over to the right side of the road. Bouhanni moved into his wheel and made a last-ditch effort to pass Cort but couldn’t quite manage it.

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