Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) sprinted to a mountains victory and the yellow jersey on stage two of the Critérium du Dauphiné.
The Dane sped across the line in thick mist after the bunch chased down breakaway rider Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) at the top of the Col de la Loge.
He took over the leader's jersey from stage one winner Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who was dropped with several kilometres to go to the finish, losing more than four minutes.
"It's amazing," said Cort afterwards. "I didn't have the best start to the season - I struggled a little bit, I didn't get any big results, then had an injury at Tirreno [Adriatico] and was out for a long time. It's amazing to come back and take a stage win here."
He had been "very much on the limit" on the final climb he said, which rose in steps. He described how his team would take him back to the front on the easier parts so he could happily lose ground on the steeper sections.
"They delivered me perfectly in the final," he added. "It's a proper big race, so a leader's jersey in the Dauphiné, that's something to remember for the rest of my career."
How it happened
With sprinter-puncheur Pedersen in the yellow jersey after yesterday's lumpy but not mountainous outing, today's 142km stage was always likely to see a significant GC reshuffle, with the last 25km all uphill and taking in a second category (Col de la Saint-Georges-en-Couzan) and third category (Col de la Croix Ladret) climbs before continuing up to the finish at the Col de la Loge.
Predictably, an early break went almost from the gun, with Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Filippo Conca (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Jonas Gregaard (Lotto-Dstny) settling in and building a useful gap over a lumpy first half of the stage, that grew to more than four minutes at one stage.
In the final 40 kilometres of what was a relatively short day out, the peloton began to pay the break more attention, and the gap slowly began to reduce.
The break managed to stay away long enough to pass the Col de la Saint-Georges-en-Couzan ahead of the pack, which also saw Le Berre securing the KoM jersey for the following day, stealing it away from Conca's team-mate Mark Donovan.
With 10km to go Armirail attacked the group, and while he only had a 32-second gap with 8km to go, he managed to hold off a bunch that was shedding riders – including Pedersen – left, right and centre and looked as though he could well have taken victory until he was swallowed up in the last kilometre by Cort and a charging Uno-X Mobility.
Results
Critérium du Dauphiné 2024 stage two
1. Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) in 3:21:42
2. Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe)
3. Matteo Jorgensen (Visma-Lease a bike)
4. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek)
5. Oier Lazkano (Movistar)
6. Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech)
7. Lukas Nururkar (EF Education-EasyPost)
8. Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels)
9. Romain Grégoire (Groupama FDJ)
10. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) all at same time
General Classification
1. Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) in 7:23:02
2. Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) +4sec
3. Matteo Jorgensen (Visma-Lease a bike) +6sec
4. Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +8sec
5. Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +10sec
6. Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech)
7. Oier Lazkano (Movistar)
8. Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech)
9. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates)
10. Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) all at same time
