Uno-X Mobility were the first team to announce a big signing on August 1 when the transfer window opened, with Magnus Cort moving the Scandinavian side for 2024 after four successful years with EF-Education EasyPost.
Cort joins the team of Danes and Norwegians with a whole host of experience and a palmarès lined with wins at the biggest races. Notably, he completed the Grand Tour stage win set last season by adding a Giro d’Italia victory to his two from the Tour de France and six from the Vuelta a España.
Uno-X made their debut at the Tour in 2023 and impressed in the way they raced, achieving nine top-10 results with five different riders and two top-three finishes.
However, Cort adds a new dimension to the side and a greater shot at a first stage victory at the Tour. Cort knows all too well the expectations this will bring on him as a proven Grand Tour stage winner.
“For me, the possibilities are the same. Maybe they are even better. It's going to be a good race programme for me regardless of how the final wildcards are distributed,” said Cort to Ekstra Bladet, well aware that as a ProTeam, Uno-X Mobility will have to hope in another invitation to the Tour de France. They have secured automatic invitations to all the 2024 one-day WorldTour races thanks to finishing 21st in the 2023 team rankings.
“I dream of winning more races, and it must be on the WorldTour," he said.
“One of the biggest things would be to win a stage in the Tour de France. However, I wouldn't say it's a bad season if it doesn't happen. Then you have to look at what else has happened.”
Cort, 30, has moved down from the WorldTour to a ProTeam, but sees his role as bigger than while at EF, not only as a leader in races but also as a role model for younger riders on the team.
It won’t be all about the Tour for the Scandinavian team, as they continue to rise up the ProTeam rankings and try to pursue WorldTour status in 2026 when the 18 slots will again be awarded.
Cort is a big name for Uno-X Mobility and should bring in a haul of valuable UCI ranking points in 2024 alongside the likes of Tobias Halland Johannessen, Alexander Kristoff and Søren Wærenskjold. The Norwegian team brought in another Scandinavian talent in Andreas Leknessund after he finished eighth at the Giro d'Italia and had a five-day stint in the maglia rosa.
“From the management's side, I am intended for a bigger role, but I can also feel it in the other riders,” Cort said.
“It's a slightly smaller team I've joined compared to the previous ones. And it is clear that many of the young people look up to someone like me. Previously, I was one of many, and now I stand out a little. I just hope I can live up to that.”
Cort is one of the best breakaway operators in the pro peloton, often finding a way to win even when seeming on his absolute limit - which his win at the Tour in 2022 highlighted best as he outsprinted Nick Schultz to the summit in Megève after a breathless two-up sprint.
He wasn’t at his best in France in 2023, but that can perhaps be put down to his brutal time spent in breaks during the Giro. There he again managed to best breakthrough rider Derek Gee and Alessandro De Marchi after the trio had been out in front for much of the day into Viareggio on stage 10.
“I must have learned a bit. The Giro was extra tough last year when there was so much bad weather, and I should probably have stopped as I was a bit half-sick,” said Cort
“But Uno-X is not going to ride the Giro, so in that way, I don't have to decide whether I should ride both the Giro and the Tour. This will make it a slightly more traditional structure.”
