Leading Danish racer Magnus Cort has confirmed that he will be leaving the sport at the end of this year.
The Uno-X Mobility racer, 33, will quit after a hugely successful career, winning stages in all three Grand Tours and a host of other WorldTour events, as well as numerous small-to-medium level one-day races. And there may yet be more to come before he bows out at the end of the year.
Arguably almost as famous for his moustache and internet posts of hotel room ratings as he is for his success on the bike, Cort said in a press statement on Saturday that he aims to ride the Tour de France and perhaps the Vuelta a España in his final season where he has two and six wins respectively to date, with the aim of going out on as high a note as possible.
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“For Cort, the decision is not about no longer being able to perform. It is about timing, priorities and choosing the right moment after more than a decade in the peloton,” an Uno-X team press release said on Saturday.
“I still feel that I am riding at 100%,” Cort added, “but I have been in this for many years, and there is a lot you have to sacrifice to be part of it. You eventually start becoming ready to stop.”
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Well-known for being able to win in almost any kind of stage race cycling could throw at him – his triumphs range from stages in the O Gran Camiño in north-west Spain to the Binckbank Tour in the Low Countries to the Veneto Classic in Italy – Cort has delivered plenty of masterclasses in cleverly calculated victories. His trio of victories over three weeks in the 2021 Vuelta a España – one a few metres ahead of an all-conquering Primoz Roglič on a hilltop finish in Cullera, another outsprinting a reduced peloton in Cordoba and a third from a high-speed breakaway in Monforte de Lemos – was one hugely memorable set of wins. But there were plenty of others.
Having joined Uno-X Mobility in 2024, Cort has seen the team move up from ProTream to WorldTour and from chasing wildcards to having guaranteed spots in some of the biggest races.
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“I will do everything I can to get a few more good results. In the Tour de France, it would be absolutely fantastic to get a result, or to help Tobias Johannessen,” – the former Tour de l’Avenir winner – “to a good result. I might also ride the Vuelta, and a Grand Tour win in my last season would make me leave professional cycling in the best way.”
A winner of 33 races and a pro at WorldTour level with Orica-GreenEdge in 2015 before joining Astana and then EF Education-EasyPost, Cort said moving onto Uno-X and back out of the WorldTour in 2024 was “a bit risky, of course, but I was not afraid of it. “
“Uno-X was already at such a high level that I knew the team would give me the same opportunities, maybe with even more support than from other teams. It did not feel like a step down — and looking back, it obviously wasn’t.”
Following this season, Cort will be aiming at having some time away from cycling, with a long trip to Nepal on the cards, but the hotel room ratings, he told his team’s website, will not disappear.
“I do not have plans for the ratings, but there will probably be some here and there. Not so many, but maybe they will come. The fans just have to follow along — and I hope to surprise them.”
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