Got a few minutes to spare? Go and have a look at Magnus Cort Nielsen‘s racing history then. His career boasts 26 victories, carefully scattered across the most prestigious contexts available in international cycling. As a rider, the Dane is not easily identifiable: very fast in sprints for sure, but not fast enough to rival the big sprinters; quite fast on the climbs as well, but not fast enough to act a valid contender in big classics or Grand Tours. Still, he is a formidable rider who is too often overlooked.
Today, on the finish line in Viareggio at the end of the extremely eventful Stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia 2023, he closed his personal circle, completing a Grand Tour set of stage wins and joining a club of now 106 riders who, over the years, have succeeded in doing so: not a few, but not many either, as this record has been chaseable for 90 years already. Cort Nielsen is the third Dane to do so, after Jesper Skibby and Mads Pedersen, with the latter joining the club only a few days ago in Naples.
“I am at the Giro d’Italia to win a stage and close the circle. I’m not yet in top condition, but I hope to find it along the way” he said on the eve of the Gran Partenza from the Costa dei Trabocchi. Well, 10 days later the EF Education-EasyPost rider has hit his target, and he now has another 11 to try and further boost his trophy case – which, by the way, already includes six stage wins at the Vuelta a España and two at the Tour de France.
