Vuelta a España: Cort gets his second win on stage 12

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Magnus Cort (EF Education-Nippo) claimed his second stage win of the Vuelta a España, triumphing in a reduced bunch sprint on a thrilling stage 12 in Córdoba.

The pair of climbs in the final 60km were always likely to set up an exciting run-in to Cordóba, and the 40-rider bunch only came back together with a kilometre to go after a late attack from Romain Bardet (DSM), Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix) and Sergio Henao (Qhubeka-NextHash).

BikeExchange had helped reel in the four-man group on the flat final 10km, and UAE Team Emirates had worked all day, but Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) and Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) were both left empty-handed as EF stole the show late on. 

Jens Keukeleire stole a march and created a gap as he led Cort out, with Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-QuickStep) sprinting from the Dane’s wheel and nearly pipping him at the line. 

Matthews, who had suddenly been placed on the back foot after a full-team lead out, had to settle for third, and Trentin, whose team had done even more work, for fourth. 

Odd Christian Eiking (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) finished safely in the reduced peloton to retain the overall lead of the race, with Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) both present and correct despite crashing on the penultimate climb.

The 175km stage had started out in frantic fashion with another big battle for the breakaway, this time taking the best part of 100km for an eight-rider escape to go clear. As UAE controlled the pace for most of the day, and BikeExchange surfaced late on after getting numbers over the final category-2 climb, Cort and his teammates took more of a back seat but surfaced when it mattered most. 

After receiving the perfect lead-out from Keukeleire, Cort produced a strong sprint to hold off Bagioli, which was doubly impressive considering his breakaway efforts the previous afternoon, where he was caught agonisingly close to the line after almost repeating his stage 6 triumph. 

“We talked about it with the team that we wouldn't do the big bunch sprint. But when the group was reduced the team wants to support me in these types of stages. They whole team did a great job and I was able to sit back and relax in the first hours when people were fighting for the breakaway,” Cort said. 

“Even though I felt the legs a little from yesterday, I managed to get over the two climbs and in the end, Jens did a very amazing job delivering me perfectly for the sprint. There were some very good guys - Matthews and Trentin - but we wanted to give it a try and I'm super happy to take this win.”

How it unfolded

The second week has seen increased interest in the breakaways and stage 12 took things up a notch, with the bunch still as one nearly 100km from the start line back in Jaen. 

The largely downhill opening 30 kilometres made for a fast start where it was difficult to get away. Stan Dewulf (AG2R-Citroën Team), Diego Rubio (Burgos-BH) and Bert-Jan Lindeman (Team Qhubeka NextHash) did manage to clip off and gain 25 seconds but they were were brought back at the 40-kilometre mark. There was more undulating terrain in the next 20km but still nothing succeeded in sticking. 

That was until the 95km-to-go mark, where the trio of Miguel 

Iturria (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Sebastian Berwick (Israel Start-Up Nation), and Sander Armee (Qhubeka-NextHash) went clear. It wasn’t case closed for a little while, though, as five riders set off in pursuit: Dewulf, Jetse Bol (Burgos-bH), Julen Amezqueta (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Maxim van Gils (Lotto Soudal) and Chad Haga (Team DSM). With 84km to go, the catch was made, and the eight-man breakaway was finally established.

After such a big fight to get into the break, it soon became apparent it would be a futile effort, as UAE quickly hit the front of the bunch en masse and pegged the gap at just over a minute. 

With 68km to go, the race headed through the finish line for the first of three times, with two separate loops awaiting - the first taking them over the category-3 Alto de San Jerónimo and the second over the Alto del 14 per cent. 

Dewulf led them through the intermediate sprint just beyond the line and they hit the firs climb with a lead of just over a minute, and held it most of the way up as the peloton rode a steady tempo. Despite this, Haga was called back from the break by DSM, who sensed it was a futile effort. 

After the early kilometres, the gradient eased and the climb flattened out almost completely, which is where UAE raised the pace and Roglič suffered his crash. A rider slid out near the front of the bunch, sending several riders from Jumbo-Visma off the right-hand side of the road, along with Yates and two of his teammates. 

Roglič got up quickly and chased with four teammates, although they had to make a big effort as UAE turned up the pressure, leaving them with several groups of riders to work their way through. They made contact just before the summit, with Yates only rejoining on the descent. 

Up in the break, Iturria attacked at the top to claim maximum mountains points and he continued his effort all the way downhill, only to be caught on the flat just before the second passage of the finish line. By the time the breakaway crossed the line with 31km to go, their advantage was down to just 30 seconds as UAE continued their charge. The group then fragmented on the approach to the Alto del 14%, and almost as soon as they hit the first slopes there was only Van Gils left out front. 

The rest of the break were soon caught but Van Gils hung onto a 30-second lead as UAE set only a steady tempo on the early slopes, before Bahrain Victorious and Movistar took it up. When Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural) kicked off the attacks from the bunch 4km from the top, however, that spelled the end for Van Gils. 

Lastra himself was quickly reeled in but soon Ciccone was on the move with Vine. Bardet sensed an opportunity and went after them, while Henao made an even later effort to make it four. They opened a lead of 25 seconds as UAE had to take a back seat when Trentin lost contact near the top, along with Matthews and Cort. 

Bardet led the quartet over the top and they maintained their advantage on the 10km descent before working together on the flat run-in. The sprinters all regained contact early on the descent and Trentin even went off the front for a while as he forced the issue. 

The Italian was briefly clear with Ion Izaguirre (Astana-PremierTech) but they settled back into the reduced bunch when BikeExchange, who’d got seven riders over the climb, set about leading the chase. 

It came down to the wire, with the front four collaborating well. They had 35 seconds with 7.5km to go, 23 seconds with 5km to go, and 12 seconds with 2.5km to go. BikeExchange and UAE had to burn through all their matches, and even after they appeared to have made the catch on a roundabout with 1.3km to go, Vine made them sweat with a final acceleration that took him to within 800 metres.

Luka Mezgec made the final push to close the gap for Matthews but they were soon put on the back foot when Keukeleire, who was behind Matthews and Trentin, sensed an opportunity. He propelled Cort through with speed, and Bagioli, who was already on the wheel, was the only rider who managed to get on terms. Matthews and Trentin were left with a gap to close and from that moment their task was too hard. It became a drag race between Cort and Bagioli and despite the Italian putting up a strong fight, it was Cort who celebrated his second success of this Vuelta.