Uno-X Mobility have been the primary crew to announce an enormous signing on August 1 when the switch window opened, with Magnus Cort transferring the Scandinavian aspect for 2024 after 4 profitable years with EF-Schooling EasyPost.
Cort joins the crew of Danes and Norwegians with an entire host of expertise and a palmarès lined with wins on the largest races. Notably, he accomplished the Grand Tour stage win set final season by including a Giro d’Italia victory to his two from the Tour de France and 6 from the Vuelta a España.
Uno-X made their debut on the Tour in 2023 and impressed in the way in which they raced, attaining 9 top-10 outcomes with 5 completely different riders and two top-three finishes.
Nevertheless, Cort provides a brand new dimension to the aspect and a larger shot at a primary stage victory on the Tour. Cort is aware of all too nicely the expectations this can carry on him as a confirmed Grand Tour stage winner.
“For me, the probabilities are the identical. Perhaps they’re even higher. It may be a very good race programme for me no matter how the ultimate wildcards are distributed,” stated Cort to Ekstra Bladet, nicely conscious that as a ProTeam, Uno-X Mobility should hope in one other invitation to the Tour de France. They’ve secured automated invites to all of the 2024 one-day WorldTour races because of ending twenty first within the 2023 crew rankings.
“I dream of successful extra races, and it should be on the WorldTour,” he stated.
“One of many largest issues could be to win a stage within the Tour de France. Nevertheless, I would not say it is a unhealthy season if it would not occur. Then you must have a look at what else has occurred.”
Cort, 30, has moved down from the WorldTour to a ProTeam, however sees his function as greater than whereas at EF, not solely as a pacesetter in races but in addition as a task mannequin for youthful riders on the crew.
It received’t be all in regards to the Tour for the Scandinavian crew, as they proceed to stand up the ProTeam rankings and attempt to pursue WorldTour standing in 2026 when the 18 slots will once more be awarded.
Cort is an enormous identify for Uno-X Mobility and may usher in a haul of invaluable UCI rating factors in 2024 alongside the likes of Tobias Halland Johannessen, Alexander Kristoff and Søren Wærenskjold. The Norwegian crew introduced in one other Scandinavian expertise in Andreas Leknessund after he completed eighth on the Giro d’Italia and had a five-day stint within the maglia rosa.
“From the administration’s aspect, I’m meant for an even bigger function, however I may also really feel it within the different riders,” Cort stated.
“It is a barely smaller crew I’ve joined in comparison with the earlier ones. And it’s clear that lots of the younger individuals look as much as somebody like me. Beforehand, I used to be one among many, and now I stand out a little bit. I simply hope I can reside as much as that.”
Cort is likely one of the finest breakaway operators within the professional peloton, usually discovering a approach to win even when seeming on his absolute restrict – which his win on the Tour in 2022 highlighted finest as he outsprinted Nick Schultz to the summit in Megève after a breathless two-up dash.
He wasn’t at his finest in France in 2023, however that may maybe be put all the way down to his brutal time spent in breaks in the course of the Giro. There he once more managed to finest breakthrough rider Derek Gee and Alessandro De Marchi after the trio had been out in entrance for a lot of the day into Viareggio on stage 10.
“I will need to have realized a bit. The Giro was additional robust final 12 months when there was a lot unhealthy climate, and I ought to most likely have stopped as I used to be a bit half-sick,” stated Cort
“However Uno-X just isn’t going to trip the Giro, so in that approach, I haven’t got to resolve whether or not I ought to trip each the Giro and the Tour. This may make it a barely extra conventional construction.”
