Danish neo-pro Magnus Cort has finished a strong sixth in a crash-marred stage two of the Tirreno-Adriatico. Cort fought his way in a messy bunch sprint, as the last of a series of crashes fell around him, and accomplished the solid result despite being boxed in and without support.

Less than 15km prior, many of the 22-year-old’s ORICA-GreenEDGE teammates had come down in an earlier crash on what was an up and down day for the outfit.

“We had four guys go down in a crash,” sport director Matt White said. “Jens Mouris has cut his forearm, Svein Tuft has given his shoulder a good whack and Adam Yates has taken the skin off his face but they all got to the finish."

“The positive is that Adam got back into the bunch and received bunch time and Magnus did a very handy sprint, with very little help, in a very messy final.”

The first road stage of the 2015 Tirreno-Adriatico was always one for the sprinters.  The 153km stage featured two reasonably simple climbs in the first 40km before a long flat run in to the finish.

Seven riders established the day’s main break, Bora-Argon 18 and Team Colombia best represented with two riders apiece, and gained an advantage of six minutes after 50km of riding. A serious reaction from the peloton dramatically reduced the gap to half that a little over ten kilometres later before they were eventually all pulled in with 15km to race.

The eventual expected sprint was made complicated with several twists and turns and street furniture.  The result, some heavy crashes and a messy finish that didn’t see any great lead out trains prevail. Tomorrow's 203km stage three into Arezzo, is likely to be more select with an uphill sprint, another opportunity suited to Cort.