You'd better keep an eye on these two riders during week 2 of the Vuelta: 'A chaotic finale'

More than a few riders seem to have found form on stage 10 of the Tour of Spain, alongside Thibault Nys. The top five featured almost entirely new names, and with everything still to come in the second week, they’re names worth noting.

The victory in Stage 10 went, surprisingly, to Bastien Tronchon (Groupama-FDJ United), but anyone who saw the top five afterward must have felt like they were being fooled. In fact, Wout van Aert was the only rider we’d already seen working hard at the front in the first week of the Vuelta, but the Visma | Lease a Bike rider finished only fourth this time.

In addition to Tronchon and Nys, he was also outpaced by the seasoned Magnus Cort, who finished second for Uno-X Mobility. The 33-year-old veteran is retiring from professional cycling at the end of this season, but wearing his Danish national champion’s jersey, he showed that a stage win in this Vuelta is by no means an unrealistic possibility. “There was little organisation, so riders who don’t normally sprint for the win saw their chance.”

"It was an extremely tough final," Cort emphasised on Eurosport, thereby indirectly suggesting that he is indeed capable of handling such finals. “There were a lot of riders hoping to win, and there weren’t really any teams left with any structure. That made for a chaotic finale,” said the Dane, who saw his teammate Frederik Dversnes come a long way from the early breakaway.

Once he’d been caught, Cort went for it himself. “I had trouble keeping up with the chase in the peloton, and in the final kilometer I got held up a bit and got boxed in. I lost a few positions and then tried to move back up without getting caught in the wind too much. It wasn’t quite enough, but it was nice to be in the mix for the win. When you’re that close, though, you want to win.”

Perhaps the rider who came closest to victory was Xabier Mikel Azparren. The 27-year-old Spaniard broke away in the very final moments, took the lead from another rider, and then looked poised to sprint to victory. However, the Pinarello-Q36.5 rider waited so long that Tronchon, already building up speed, passed him, leaving seventh place as the best he could achieve.

Azparren was another rider we hadn’t seen among the leaders in this Vuelta yet. But apparently, he, too, has the legs to pull off something like that. “I would have liked to win. Normally I have a fiery temperament, but this time I was too calm. I wanted to put pressure on Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS Astana, ed.), but in the end I couldn’t do it, and my sprint was too slow.”

It was a missed opportunity, because Fedorov and Azparren had opened up a nice gap, and the Spaniard seemed to have enough left in him to surge past them. “I’m not giving up now; I think I have what it takes to win a stage. Perseverance pays off—that’s my philosophy.”