Magnus Cort powers to victory on Volta a Catalunya stage 2

Magnus Cort won stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya with a perfectly timed sprint to win ahead of Noa Isidore (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Francesco Bussato (Alpecin-Premier Tech). 

Dorian Godon (Ineos) remains the overall leader after placing fourth on the stage, with Cort now on the same time in second place.

Stage 2 saw a breakaway of five riders going clear early on, featuring Liam Slock (Lotto-Intermarche), Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarche), who was in the King of the Mountains jersey, Julen Arriolabengoa (Caja Rural), Diego Urriate (Kern Pharma) and Samuel Fernández (Euskaltel - Euskadi). 

The five-man group was able to push on over the flatter terrain of the stage to build out an advantage towards the three-minute mark, approaching the unclassified climb located in the final 40km. Behind, EF Education - EasytPost, Ineos and NSN took care of controlling the escapees.

With 47km to go, the breakaway fell apart with the two Lotto-Intermarche riders, Slock and Veistroffer, joined by Urriate as the newly formed trio held just over two minutes to the peloton with 35 kilometres remaining, as the tempo within the peloton proved too much for some fast men, including Sam Bennett (Pinarello Q36.5) who was dropped on the lumpier terrain of the day.

Veistroffer was initially dropped from the breakaway with 30km to go, as the break's chances appeared slim due to the ever-increasing pace of the peloton behind, with several fast men sensing potential glory over the horizon. However, Veistroffer pushed back on to rejoin the front group later on.

Heading into the final 20km, the front trio still held an advantage of over a minute until Veistroffer, who back from being dropped, now shot off the front. His teammate Slock joined him, and the Lotto-Intermarche duo held a one-minute advantage, with a fast descent by the coast incoming, which meant the alarm bells started to sound at the front of the peloton.

Victory was now hanging in the balance between the break and the peloton. A crash in the peloton by Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Premier Tech) caused a significant split, which was quickly closed predominantly due to the work of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

The breakaway, somehow pushed on with a 10-second gap into the last 4km, with Slock left out all alone with 3km to go. He held a slender gap of five seconds as the sprint teams took control in the peloton.

Slock was caught in the final kilometre and Uno-X Mobility took control launching Magnus Cort to win.

The Volta a Catalunya continues on Wednesday with stage 3 containing a handful of climbs for the peloton with over 2200 metres of elevation gain to tackle on the 159 kilometre stage before a flat run in to the finish in Vila-seca.