Team Cult Energy won the opening stage in the Tour of Denmark as Magnus Cort unfolded his huge potential to claim the stage win and the leader’s jersey in Varde.

Magnus Cort, 20, was in a 6-man breakaway group almost as soon as the flag dropped. The breakaway seemed to be held on a tight leash by the peloton but when Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol) bridged the gap, a new vitality was added to the breakaway. Cort and Nikola Aistrup (Concordia-Riwal) latched onto Bak’s accelerations to form a front trio. In the decisive sprint Cort took a convincing win.

“As Bak bridged the gap, he rode straight past and I just intended to sit on his wheel because he hadn’t been in the breakaway and he was going faster than we were,” Cort explained after his biggest win so far. “We held off the chasing pack, and when the chips were down, I was the fastest guy,” Cort added with a huge smile.

“Wearing the yellow jersey tomorrow is going to be awesome. You don’t often get to wear a leader’s jersey, and on top of that I will wear it in my native country. It doesn’t get much bigger than this. I realize that I shall probably lose the jersey in the time trial, so I don’t believe we will be riding for me. However, I’m not surrendering this jersey without a fight,” Cort commented.