La Vuelta: Another ‘tough day’ for Chaves as Cort supports Orica in break

Dane Magnus Cort joined a 20-rider break after 50km of racing to shine under the Spanish sun in his second consecutive day in a breakaway for Orica-Scott at the 72nd edition of La Vuelta a España on Thursday.

The break extended its gap to 13 minutes before eventually being reeled in on the 18th stage (169km) from Suances to Santo Toribio de Liébana ultimately won by Sander Armée (Lotto-Soudal).

Orica sports director Neil Stephens acknowledged the 24-year-old two-time Vuelta stage winner (2016) for his willingness to support the team.

“We really wanted to get somebody in the break, we are still committed to keep on fighting for a stage win,” he said.

“Maggie was the only one that wasn’t meant to go in the break but he saw his teammates were in trouble and he put himself in there,” Stephens continued. “Hats off to him, it wasn’t a great day for him, especially after being in the break yesterday.

“Once he was out there, we just had to see how it played out but it was always going to be difficult.”

For the team’s Colombian climber and former general classification threat, Esteban Chaves, it was yet another difficult day as the race winds down with just three stages to go and race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) extends lead by 21 seconds to 1 minute 37 seconds over 2010 race winner Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida).

“It was a really difficult day for Esteban,” said Stephens of the 12th-place Chaves on GC (+11:57). “Early in the stage he said he was having a tough day and from there it was just a rough journey for him.

“He had bad sensations from the start, he battled through and really relied on his teammates and they did a fantastic job but he was completely empty.”

For full stage report and results click here.