After the U23 World Championships, Magnus Cort will ride his first race for Orica-GreenEDGE when he lines up at the Tour de l'Eurometropole on Thursday. The Dane will be given a leadership role in his first outing for the Australian team.

Danish stagiaire Magnus Cort will debut for ORICA-GreenEDGE at the Tour de l’Eurométropole, which starts this Thursday in Belgium.

Cort, who will be looked to in a bunch sprint scenario, will be joined by an experienced line up chasing stage wins throughout the four-day Tour also known as Circuit Franco-Belge.

The seven riders for the Tour de l’Eurométropole are:  Jens Keukeleire, Jens Mouris, Leigh Howard, Magnus Cort, Mathew Hayman, Mitch Docker and Sam Bewley.

Whilst stage victories will be the focus, sport director Laurenzo Lapage said there is also an opportunity to do well overall. 

“We go to Franco-Belge to try to win a stage, that’s for sure,” Lapage said.

“And if you go there with a fast sprinter and you win on the first stage for example, you can also look to go for the overall because it’s not a really hard course.

“It’s a course where the team needs to be motivated.  It’s in Belgium so the weather can be bad and I think they have announced rain for the weekend.”

Whilst the team will look to Cort in the bunch sprint, the pressure won’t just be on the 21-year-old, with the other riders all been given the opportunity to activate racing.

“This is Magnus’ first race with the team,” Lapage said.

“We believe in him a lot and I think it is important for him in his first race that he feels accepted so we will give him a chance to go for a stage win.

“He will be the only rider that will take it easy during the stages and keep himself fresh for the end. 

“All of the other guys have more of a free role.  We don’t want to give Magnus too much stress, so we won’t look to him for the entire race, but when we see it will come to a bunch sprint he is the guy we will go for.”

ORICA-GreenEDGE at the Tour de l’Eurométropole:  

Jens Keukeleire
Jens Mouris
Leigh Howard
Magnus Cort
Mathew Hayman
Mitch Docker
Sam Bewley