Vuelta a España stage 19: Magnus Cort bests Quinn Simmons for breakaway win

Magnus Cort (EF Education-Nippo) won stage 19 of the 2021 Vuelta a España ahead of Rui Oliveira (UAE-Team Emirates), and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) in a mad dash for the line. The all-day break held off the pursuing peloton by just 18 seconds.

This is Cort’s third stage win in this edition of the Vuelta.

“Having three from the same [Spanish] Tour — that’s unbelievable,” said the Dane who contemplated his other stage wins. “I think winning stage six on that mountain was my favorite because we don’t really have mountains in Denmark.”

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) wore the leader’s jersey again in a grand tour, his 49th day in such an honor. On stage 20 he will equal the mark of 50 days in a leader’s jersey set by Chris Froome.

How it happened

At 95km to go the break had a 2:49 advantage. This margin was reduced to 2:15 in just 12km, and the gap continued to come down in chunks over the following 10km.

The group at the front included Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Craddock and Cort Nielsen (EF Education Nippo), Nico Denz (Team DSM), Mark Padun (Bahrain Victorious), Mikael Cherel and Damien Touzé (AG2R-Citroën), Antonio Jesus Soto (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix), Julen Amezqueta, Oier Lazkano (both Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) ,Fabio Aru (Qhubeka-NextHash), Rui Oliveira and Jan Polanc (both UAE Team Emirates), Pelayo Sanchez (Burgos-BH), Anthony Roux (Groupama-FDJ), Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), Robert Stannard (Team BikeEchange), and Andreas Kron (Lotto-Soudal).

Several attempts were made by different riders in the break to go off the front, but nothing stuck.

Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) in the green jersey of the lead of the points competition drifted off the back of the red jersey group, with 70km remaining. He was more than 10 minutes behind the first group on the road, and his teammates were minding him to ensure he’d make the time cut.

At the time, Team DSM did the work on the front with hopes of putting Alberto Dainese in a good position to take the stage win, and also distance the green jersey.

From the break, Simmons went on the offensive at 60km to go, but his attack came to nothing and he was brought back. Oliveira counterattacked, and the group at the front fractured chasing after the UAE Team Emirate rider with 55km remaining.

Oliveira was then brought back by the reduced first group on the road which had 1:11 ahead of the red jersey bunch.

A crash at 42.7km from the finish momentarily sidelined James Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), but Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty-Group Matériaux) — who was in 10th place on the GC — did not get up off the road and was forced to abandon.

Soon after this, Ion Izagirre (Astana-Premier Tech) had a minor collision with another team’s soigneur at 39km to go. He quickly tried to resume racing and rejoined the peloton.

Team BikeExchange chases, EF Education-Nippo masters sprint

Once again, Team BikeExchange led the chasing peloton with a 30-second gap at 34km to go. And once again, Simmons launched an attack and tried to go solo. He quickly got a gap when he was helped by Oliveira.

Kron and Craddock reacted and tried to bridge to the two on the front, but after several kilometers of riding in “no-man’s land” they dropped back to be joined by a handful of riders to chase after the two who were 17 seconds up the road.

Simmons and Oliveira were brought back to the bunch several kilometers later and the group of seven at the front of the race worked together to hold off the peloton lead by Team BikeExchange, shadowed by Jumbo-Visma through 15km to go.

Over the next 5km the margin to the breakaway hovered around 20 seconds and the charging peloton — still lead by the Australian squad — was closing in on the front group, commanded by the pink jerseys of EF Education-Nippo.

Craddock, the U.S. national champion in the individual trim trial, cranked at the front of the race for most of the final 3km to set up Cort Nielsen, while Simmons tried to shadow them.

Craddock led into 500m to go with Cort in perfect position. Simmons was the first to launch, with Oliveira on his wheel.

Cort timed his sprint to get into Simmons’ slipstream and then come around him, as Oliveira squeaked in for second place on the 19th stage.

“I have to thank my teammate Lawson Craddock for doing an amazing job. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him in the breakaway today,” Cort said in appreciation of his teammate.

Simmons was visibly upset with his third-place performance on the stage, slamming his fist against his handlebars at the line. He was soon after consoled by his teammate, Gianluca Brambilla, for his superb work on the day.

https://twitter.com/TrekSegafredo/status/1433811589535342595

What’s to come

The penultimate stage of the 2021 Vuelta a España features nearly no flat roads. The 202.2-kilometer stage looks to be a classic climbing event, with 37.5km of of climbing, has been compared to the Liège–Bastogne–Liège parcours. The finish is on a 10km category 2 climb.

With just two stages remaining — unless disaster strikes — Primož Roglič’s 2:22 advantage will only expand on the final-stage time trial.

The points classification is all but assured to go to Jakobsen, while the best young rider competition has also nearly been wrapped up by 2021 Giro d’Italia champion Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).