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Dane Cort Nielsen beats Roglic in the fog to take Dauphine lead / Photo: © AFP/File
Dane Cort Nielsen beats Roglic in the fog to take Dauphine lead
Magnus Cort Nielsen took the race lead after winning the second stage of the Criterium du Dauphine ahead of Primoz Roglic in thick fog on the summit of the Col de la Loge on Monday.
The Uno-X rider won a sprint finish ahead of the peloton of favourites who caught the last survivor of the breakaway, Frenchman Bruno Armirail, just 150 metres from the finish line.
Armirail's misfortune worked in the favour of Dane Cort Nielsen, who relishes these stages for punchers and has already won stages on the three grand Tours.
At the bottom of the final climb, Col de la Croix Ladret, Armirail attacked on his own and dropped his former breakaway companions, who were reined in by the pack with 8 km to go.
Race leader Mads Pedersen was dropped by the peloton 500 metres from the top of the last hill and the French escapee held on.
Armirail retained his 25-second advantage with 5 km to go and was still leading the way with 300 metres left as the fog made the visibility very poor.
He hardly saw the peloton race past, led by Cort Nielsen, who outpaced Roglic and American Matteo Jorgenson, the co-leader of the Visma team in the absence of Jonas Vingegaard.
Cort Nielsen at the same time took the lead in the general classification from fellow Dane Mads Pedersen, after his first race win in his new Uno-X colours.
"I didn't have my best start to the season, I went through difficult times, without great results," he said. "So winning in a race as important as the Dauphine is really fabulous."
To complete his happiness, he took the yellow leader's jersey.
"Wearing this jersey will be a memorable memory of my career. Danish cycling has been going extremely strong for several years," added Cort Nielsen, 31.
Among the favourites, Roglic made a good impression by taking second place.
The Bora-Hansgrohe leader is "excited to be racing with the guys again" after spending a lot of time in training following his crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in early April.
Belgian Remco Evenepoel and Spaniard Juan Ayuso also finished in the peloton.
For them, Wednesday's time trial will be the first real test after another hilly ride on Tuesday over 181.7km from Celles-sur-Durolle to Les Estables in south-central France.
U.Moon--SG
