Magnus Cort puts the icing on the Arctic for Uno-X
August 7 th 2024 - 21:15
Uno-X Mobility topped off an extraordinary week in the Arctic Race of Norway by winning the last stage and securing the overall win through his Danish rider Magnus Cort, who raised his arms in victory to bring home the midnight sun jersey that he had already claimed on the eve, atop Jakobsbakken. The last outing in the world’s northernmost road cycling event was no walk in the park, though, as the Norwegian team had to pull with all its cyclists into the uphill finish in Bodø in order to bring back a strong breakaway led by Lotto-dstny, which was hoping to overhaul the overall classification with Jonas Gregaard Wilsly. Their brave effort, though, was frustrated by the ever-dominating Uno-X and its scorer Magnus Cort, who landed the team’s third stage win in this edition of the Arctic Race of Norway after Alexander Kristoff netted the first two earlier in the week. Arkéa-B&B Hotels’ Clément Champoussin and Team dsm-firmenich PostNL’s Kevin Vermaerke stood alongside Cort on the overall podium, while his teammate Andreas Leknessund finished as the best Norwegian rider and TDT-Unibet’s Jelle Johannink collected the the peacock jersey as the winner of the Mountains classification.
104 riders took the start in the fourth stage of the 2024 Arctic Race of Norway, held between Glomfjord (in the municipality of Meløy) and Bodø over 157,1 kilometers, at 16:40. Magnus Cort (Uno-X) started the day as the overall leader, yet his midnight sun jersey was at stake with an uphill finish in schedule and no less than 22 riders within shooting distance of the Dane’s position as there were 19 bonus seconds up for grabs spread between three intermediate sprints and the finish line. A huge crash shook the peloton 4 kilometers into the race and forced Eivind Broholt Fougner (Coop-Repsol) and Antonio Soto (Equipo Kern Pharma) to withdraw. The day’s breakaway got established at km 15, as Andreas Stokbro Nielsen (TDT-Unibet) and Jonas Wilsly (Lotto-dstny) went clear and were joined by Logan Currie (Lotto-dstny), Arthur Kluckers (Tudor), Alessandro Perracchione (Novo Nordisk) and Karsten Larsen Feldmann (Coop-Repsol). The six men at the front enjoyed a 1’25” advantage on the bunch driven by Uno-X at Dalen (IS, km 21,5), where Wilsly was first across to collect three bonus seconds that brought him closer to Cort in the GC after starting the day in 37th position, 48” in arrears.
Several teams cooperate with Uno-X
The gap grew up to 3’40” when Wilsly led the breakaway through Skauvoll (Cat 3, km 50,1). His teammate Currie paced the six-strong front group at Ertenvåg (Cat 2, km 81,4), where their advantage peaked at 3’45”. The landscape at the head of the bunch changed slightly up the climb to Tuv (Cat 3, km 98,4) as Jayco-AlUla put Lawson Craddock to take turns along with Uno-X’s Rasmus Tiller and Markus Hoelgaard, bringing the margin of break down to 3’25” as Currie was again first at the summit. Later on, Flanders-Baloise, Israel-Premier Tech, Astana Qazaqstan and Team dsm-firmenich PostNL also contributed to the chase too.
Wilsly agonizingly close to pull an amazing victory
The escapees reached the final circuit in Bodo (km 129) with a sizable margin of 2’20” over the peloton. The three laps around the 9,8-kilometer course made for an exciting chase, with Uno-X at helm trying to reel in a breakaway where Wilsly claimed maximum bonus seconds in both the intermediate sprints at km 137,5 and km 147,1. The gap was down to 1’05” at the latter, with just 10 kilometers to go, enabling the men at the front to reach the final, 1,2-kilometer long climb with a slight gap. Wilsly tried to make the most of it, but he was caught for good with 200 meters to go as Cort sprinted for the win to thwart his courageous bid.
