Vuelta a Espana 2021 - Stage 12 as it happened - Magnus Cort on song in Cordoba after Primoz Roglic scare

Updated 26/08/2021 at 15:56 GMT

Magnus Cort turned a page and wrote a fresh chapter in his Vuelta story with victory in Stage 12 in a reduced bunch sprint. Here's how the Dane came out on top on a day Primoz Roglic hit the deck - again - and Odd Christian Eiking retained the red jersey. Follow live updates with Felix Lowe. You can watch La Vuelta live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk.

Stage 12 profile: Jáen – Córdoba

No change in the top 10 of GC

Primoz Roglic recovered from that earlier crash - as did Adam Yates - and both riders finished safely in the pack to retain their positions in the standings. Odd Christian Eiking retained his 58-second lead over Guillaume Martin to secure the red jersey for a third day.

Vuelta a España

‘Roglic didn’t look particularly comfortable’ – Lloyd on lack of Stage 15 ‘fireworks’

04/09/2022 at 17:27

Here's how Magnus Cort doubled up and took his win...

Matthews and Trentin miss out

The sprinters from the teams who did all the work had no answer to that acceleration from Cort. Michael Matthews took third place and Matteo Trentin fourth, with another Dane, Andreas Kron of Lotto Soudal, completing the top five.

But the star of the show was Magnus Cort who was expertly led out there by his EF teammate Jens Keukeleire before holding off the Italian youngster Bagioli for his second win of the race. A remarkable result given how deep he went yesterday.

Victory for Magnus Cort!

What an outstanding win for the man who had his heart broken yesterday. That was one of the most exciting finishes so far in this Vuelta with the Dane going shoulder to shoulder with Andrea Bagioli of Deceuninck-QuickStep. He just held on to take the win for EF Education-Nippo. Wow.

Final kilometre

The four escapees are caught just after a roundabout ahead of the flamme rouge. Correction: three of them are caught because Jay Vine continues to defy the pursuers well into the final kilometre... only to be caught as Magnus Cort comes to the front inside the last 500m.

3km: Misery for the four leaders

Just 12 seconds now as they negotiate a tight roundabout. The pace is so high in the pack and it will be remarkable if this quartet can pull this off. Never say never though - although surely the win today will be one of Matthews, Trentin or Matthews...

5km: BikeExchange still going big guns

The Australian team have reduced the gap to 21 seconds now. UAE are finally joining in following their earlier move from Trentin. And Magnus Cort looks to be moving himself up towards the front of this main pack. He should reduce Fabio Jakobsen's green jersey lead a bit today with a strong finish.

8km: Trentin and Izagirre sit up

The chasers knock it off and are caught by this streamline pack which is all stretched out in a line with BikeExchange at its head. The gap is still 35 seconds though for the four leaders. You know what - they may pull this off.

10km: Still 30 seconds for four leaders

Bardet, Vine, Henao and Ciccone still have 25 seconds on the two chasers and 30 seconds on the peloton. It's very well poised. Trentin has teammates behind and may be better advised leaning on them. But it's now BikeExchange who are driving the tempo for their man Matthews.

12km: Trentin goes clear!

The Italian has decided that he's better off doing this alone rather than with his team. Trentin opens up a gap on this descent in pursuit of the four leaders - but he's soon joined by Ion Izagirre of Astana-PremierTech who powers clear of the field and then joins the Italian ahead.

15km: Trentin and UAE back on front

The Italian comes to the front with his UAE teammates as they push to snuff out the threat from this four-man break. Henao, one of those riders, has a heart-in-house moment when he drops a chain and needs to re-engage it on this fast and technical descent. He manages to do just that. Exciting stuff.

18km: Bardet takes KOM points

It's the Frenchman who goes over the top at the head of this four-man move and those five points will put the Frenchman up to 27pts in the KOM standings just 4pts behind the polka dot jersey Caruso. It also looks like Matthews has managed to rejoin the back of the pack just before the top of the climb - he's there with Matteo Trentin and Magnus Cort, who could all stand a good chance of the victory today should it come down to the sprint.

Almost 30 seconds for the four leaders as they tackle this descent...

20km: Bardet joins leaders

Lastra must have been caught as well as Van Gils because we've had no sighting of him at all. We now have four out ahead after Bardet bridged over to Vine and Ciccone before they were joined by Sergio Henao of Qhubeka-NextHash. Michael Matthews has been dropped from the pack so there will be no joy for the Australian one year and one day after his last pro win.

21km: Attacks start to come in

Lastra catches and passes Van Gils on the front. Meanwhile, Giulio Ciccone has put in an attack with an Alpecin-Fenix rider to open up a small gap on the pack. It's Jay Vine - and they have a DSM rider behind. Caruso, in polka dots, leads the pack alongside Bahrain teammate Wout Poels. The pack is only about 30-strong now.

22km: Lastra attacks the pack

Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural) is the first to make a move from the main pack, which is not very big after a gruppetto has formed off the back. The second peloton includes the green jersey Fabio Jakobsen and also the misfiring Spaniard Mikel Landa. It's well over two minutes back. All the riders from the break - except Van Gils - have been caught.

25km: Cat.2 Alto del 14%

Apparently this one gets its name from the road sign halfway up warning downward traffic of the steep gradient. Funnily enough, the maximum gradient of the climb is actually 16% while the average is only 5.6% over its 7.2km length. Van Gils rides with his jersey unzipped and with a gap of 35 seconds over the peloton, which now has Bahrain Victorious on its nose with their man Damiano Caruso perhaps sniffing out the polka dot jersey points.

26km: Breakaway blows apart

Berwick, then Iturria and then Bol all sit up from the break. Dewulf, Van Gils, Amezqueta and Armee continue in pursuit, presumably, of the day's combativity prize. It's the Lotto Soudal rider Maxim Val Gils who decides to have the last say, the Belgian zipping clear of his companions on an uphill drag to the foot of the final climb.

30km: 41 degrees Celsius!

The cameras just focused on a street thermometer that measured today's current temperature at a staggering 41 degrees. UAE Team Emirates still have six riders on the front of the pack setting tempo through the streets of Cordoba as they approach the climb with a deficit of 30 seconds on the seven leaders.

38km: Break back together

Mikel Iturria has been caught by his fellow escapees as they approach the city centre of Cordoba for the second time. The leaders have 40 seconds over the peloton, which is still being led by UAE Team Emirates with Movistar tucked in just behind. They could well be reeled in before the next climb.

44km: 15 seconds for Iturria

The lone leader has 15 seconds on his six pursuers who have momentarily split in two, with Amezqueta, Bol and Berwick riding about 30 metres behind Dewulf, Van Gils and Armee. The main pack is 58 seconds down. Roglic and Yates - the big name riders involved in that fall - are both back in the peloton.

49km: Iturria takes KOM points and attacks

The Basque rider from Euskaltel puts in a dig to crest the summit in pole position - and then continues his acceleration to open up a gap on the descent. UAE lead the pack over the top around one minute later. It's worth adding that Odd Christian Eiking, the red jersey, is right up there near the front and with his Intermarche teammates around him.

50km: UAE setting the tempo

While many riders are trying to fight back on, UAE Team Emirates are drilling it on the front along with Damiano Caruso, the polka dot jersey, from Bahrain Victorious. The Jumbo train is quickly filtering though the field so Roglic will soon be back in business. The break, meanwhile, see their gap come down to just one minute as they approach the summit.

52km: Roglic being paced back

Roglic is riding with a bunch of his Jumbo-Visma teammates - we don't know how badly he was affected by the crash but the entire team stopped after that incident, suggesting the Slovenian went down badly. The cameras lingered on Movistar's Nelson Oliveira for a while - the Portuguese practically had his entire bib shorts torn off in that spill. Here's what happened:

55km: Big crash in the peloton; Roglic down

Jumbo-Visma, Ineos, Movistar and Bahrain Victorious all have riders down after a spill near the front of the pack on a sweeping corner. Primoz Roglic went down but he doesn't look to be badly hurt. For Ineos, Adam Yates and Dylan van Baarle went down quite badly - the Dutchman needing some treatment. That could be a turning point.

56km: Carapaz dropped from the pack

The Olympic gold medallist has been struggling a bit in this Vuelta and he's already off the back of the pack. Omar Fraile, the Spanish champion, is also feeling the pinch - although we're hearing he may have had a crash. Haga, the American who was in the break, apparently dropped back after a chat with his DSM directeur sportif - so it was tactical, he wasn't dropped.

60km: Cat.3 Alto de San Jeronimo

We're onto the first of those two climbs which is 13km long at a gentle 3.4%. The gap has increased to 1:45 for the eight leaders. Make that seven: Chad Haga, who turns 33 years old today, has been dropped.

69km: De Wulf wins intermediate sprint

It came around one kilometre after the breakaway crossed through the finish line for the first of three occasions to start these two out-and-back loops around Cordoba. The Belgian AG2R-Citroen rider leads the eight-man move through the sprint with a gap of 1:05 over the peloton. UAE are setting the tempo behind and are clearly not too keen on the gap growing any bigger. Ineos Grenadiers are also in the mix - perhaps they plan to set up someone like Tom Pidcock today?

75km: Tobias Bayer abandons

Confirmation that the Austrian has withdrawn following that crash. That's the second Alpecin-Fenix rider to pack their bags in as many days following Jasper Philipsen's departure yesterday. The first of the two climbs is around 10km away but first up we have the intermediate sprint at Cordoba, which the riders are approaching now.

80km: One minute for eight leaders

The two groups have come together so we have eight out ahead now with a decent but not huge gap. UAE Team Emirates have sent Rui Oliveira onto the front to tap out tempo - probably in anticipation of paving the way for Matteo Trentin. The Portuguese is followed by the Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert train with the man in red, Odd Christian Eiking, tucked in nicely.

84km: Crash! Four go down...

The cameras missed that but we have a handful of riders down after what could have been an incident caused by a bush overhanging the side of the road - I saw that because one of the riders, Tobias Bayer, is still lying in the offending piece of shrubbery. Bayer went down with his Alpecin-Fenix teammate Scott Thwaites as well as a rider from Bora and one from Euskaltel. They all get up and on their way with the exception of the Austrian Bayer, who looks to be in quite a bad way. He's sitting up but his race could be over.

86km: Five in pursuit

Stan Dewulf (AG2R-Citroen), Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH), Julen Amezqueta (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Soudal) and birthday boy Chad Haga (Team DSM) have formed a quintet and are bearing down on the three leaders. We could soon have a strong group on the front of the race.

92km: Gap still very small

Ineos Grenadiers didn't seem too pleased about this breakaway and Tom Pidcock was mincing around the front exiting the litter zone. There are now two riders trying to bridge over - Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) and Julen Amezqueta (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) - as the leading trio hit a small uphill slog. More riders are trying to join the party while many domestiques in the pack are taking on musettes in the feed zone.

97km: Three go clear! Again!

Spain's Mikel Iturria (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Sebastian Berwick (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Sander Armee (Qhukeba-NextHash) managed to edge clear of the pack. Perhaps this will be allowed to stick as the race approaches the feed zone.

Matteo Trentin on today's stage

We spoke to UAE Team Emirates rider Matteo Trentin ahead of the stage and the Italian had some prescient comments: "It could be a good stage for me. There are two climbs before the finish so we can try and drop the sprinters and get in a good group for the final. But in this Vuelta, 90 per cent of the bunch want to go in the break so it's going to be hard to control the start. But if we manage to let a small group get away then we can control the stage. It's not more difficult [to get in the breakaway this year] it just takes a little longer."

Meanwhile, despite how it's panning out today, Nico Roche, in the Eurosport studio, thinks today will be won from the breakaway:

110km: Quartet thwarted

Frenchman Florian Sénéchal (Deceuninck-QuickStep) instigates a move, takes three riders with him, but then sits up once they realise it's coming to nothing. Boy, this is relentless. The speed is still above 52kph and the temperature is up to 34 degrees.

130km: Peloton back together

That trio was neutralised with 137km to go and this was followed by a wave of fresh attacks - including a potentially dangerous dozen which, well, didn't pose that much danger in the end. And so it continues...

It's worth noting that both Arnaud Demare and Chad Haga are celebrating their birthdays today: The Frenchman hits a milestone with his 30th while the American, amazingly, turns 33. I always thought he was a youngster... Meanwhile Michael Matthews yesterday was celebrating another anniversary: one year since his last victory. Ouch. Could the Australian end that run today? Quite possibly. He has the legs to stay in touch on the climbs and the kick for the finish...

140km: 25 seconds now for the leaders

The gap edges up but, as the riders hit the foot of an uncategorised climb, there are still many teams not happy with the situation so we can expect a raft of counter-attacks once the gradient ramps up a little. The temperature is now 33 degrees and so it's not simply the racing that's hotting up.

145km: Another three go clear

Our latest triumvirate of breakaway hopefuls are Stan Dewulf (AG2R-Citroën), Diego Rubio (Burgos-BH) and Bert-Jan Lindeman (Qhubeka NextHash). They have 20 seconds but are getting little more leeway because both Euskaltel and Alpecin-Fenix have riders trying to join the party. No surprise to see Alpecin trying to get involved after their sprinter Jasper Philipsen withdrew yesterday, changing the dynamic of the team's race somewhat.

150km: Whopping average speed so far

That trio only ever got a handful of seconds over the pack and then was reabsorbed after 15 riders managed to bridge over and provide the link back to the peloton. It's no huge surprise it's proving so difficult for a move to stick today when there are so many teams out there still empty handed and when the average speed so far has been a mind-boggling 55.4kph.

155km: Three go clear in Bol(d) move

It's been a few days since we last saw Jetse Bol in a breakaway so it's no surprise to see the Dutchman from Burgos-BH try his luck today along with Antonio Soto of Euskaltel-Euskadi and Dimitri Claeys (Qhubeka-NextHash).

160km: All back together

Touzé managed to carve out an 18-second lead but he was then joined by five others who essentially dragged the peloton back across - so we're back to square one again. After a couple of lumps and bumps the road is now on a slight decline for the next 20 kilometres which could well make it hard for another move to stick.

170km: Fast start and early moves

The pace is pretty ferocious as rider after rider pings clear but gets pegged back. The latest to open up a small gap is Frenchman Damien Touzé (AG2R-Citroën) who, for now, has gone clear with no reaction from the pack.

Aru kidding me? Fabio may have to pull out...

The Italian former Vuelta winner Fabio Aru was riding a solid Vuelta in what will be the last Grand Tour outing of his career... until yesterday when the Qhubeka-NextHash rider plummeted five places in the standings and now lies over 18 minutes down. We're hearing that Aru has been suffering with an illness:

“Unfortunately, I had stomach issues in the last stages. It continued last night and also in the morning. I went a lot of time to the bathroom and I feel really, really empty. I saved the day on Tuesday, but yesterday was terrible and the night was worse. I’m here to try to start today but it’s not easy because I feel really empty. I’m not feeling good.”

Let's hope he can get through this and perhaps even fight for a stage win in the final week - that would be a nice way to bid farewell to the sport.

175km to go: Stage 12 is under way

The remaining 168 riders have rolled out of Jaen and gone under the kilometre zero banner - after a slight delay owing to a mechanical for a rider from Burgos BH. The race is on! It's a balmy 30 degrees Celsius and a reminder that we have Odd Christian Eiking in red, Egan Bernal in white, Damiano Caruso in polka dots and Fabio Jakobsen in green. Let's get this show started...

More hills but a flat finish in Cordoba

If yesterday's win by Primoz Roglic seemed quite easy to predict, the same cannot be said about today's 175km Stage 12. The road declines for the first third, punctuated with the odd rise ahead of the intermediate sprint over the finish line at Cordoba. The riders then face two different loops out of the Andalusian city each with a different climb. The finish comes after the final descent and a flat 10km dash to the line. Sprinter? Climber? Rouleur? Breakaway artist? GC riders? It's difficult to say how this one will play out...

Magnificent Magnus caught at the death

Any doubts as to whether Primoz Roglic would be adversely affected by his fall in Stage 10 were put to bed with another dominant display from the Slovenian one day later. But the star of the show yesterday was Magnus Cort, who came within 200 metres of denying Roglic on his own terrain for a second time in six days.

Opinion: Magnificent Magnus caught at the death by ruthless Roglic in Stage 11

'I gave it everything' - Cort Nielsen reacts to dramatic Stage 11 finale

Stage 11 recap - Roglic bounces back to claim Stage 11 in thrilling finish

Six days after holding off Primoz Roglic for a hard-fought victory in Stage 6, Denmark’s Magnus Cort (EF Education-Nippo) came very close to doubling up in Valdepenas de Jaen by doing exactly the same – only to be caught inside the final 150 metres of a thrilling uphill finale to Stage 11.

The last man standing from a five-man breakaway, Cort stayed clear on the only categorised climb of the day – the Puerto de Locubin – before arriving at the foot of the ramped rise to the finish inside the final kilometre with just 15 seconds to play with.

But once Roglic kicked clear of the main pack with his Spanish rival Enric Mas in tow, Cort’s brave effort came to a painful end – the 28-year-old fading to the most misleading 25th place you will see all season.

Read the full report here.

Vuelta a España: Highlights as Roglic bounces back to take Stage 11 win

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