Magnus Cort will retire at the end of the 2026 season, bringing down the curtain on one of Danish cycling’s most distinctive modern careers. The Uno-X Mobility rider confirmed the decision ahead of what is set to be his final Tour de France, although he still intends to chase results through the rest of the year.
Cort, now in his third season with Uno-X Mobility, said the decision is not based on a loss of competitiveness. He has already won a stage at the Volta a Catalunya this year and finished third on stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse, showing that he remains capable of performing at WorldTour level.
“I still feel that I am riding at 100%, but I have been in this for many years, and there is a lot you have to sacrifice to be part of it,” Cort said. “You eventually start becoming ready to stop.”
The 33-year-old will leave the sport with a career few riders can match. Cort has won stages at all three Grand Tours, taking two Tour de France stage wins, one Giro d’Italia stage victory and six stages at the Vuelta a España. That Grand Tour set places him in a select group of riders able to win across cycling’s three biggest stage races.
His first Tour stage victory came in 2018, when he won stage 15 to Carcassonne for Astana. Four years later, he added another Tour win on stage 10 to Megève, after a breakaway ride that fitted the Cort profile perfectly: aggressive, opportunistic and tactically sharp.
Cort completed his Grand Tour stage-win collection at the 2023 Giro d’Italia, winning stage 10 in Viareggio after surviving a cold, wet breakaway day and sprinting from the reduced front group. He has also built a strong record at the Vuelta, where his six stage victories confirmed him as one of the best breakaway finishers of his generation.
Beyond the Grand Tours, Cort has won the Arctic Race of Norway overall, taken victory at the Veneto Classic, won stages at the Critérium du Dauphiné, Volta a Catalunya, Paris-Nice, Tour of Denmark and Volta ao Algarve, and built a reputation as one of the peloton’s most versatile attackers.
Final season with Uno-X Mobility
Cort joined Uno-X Mobility ahead of the 2024 season, moving from EF Education-EasyPost to a team still building its place at the top level. From the outside, it looked like a risk. Cort says it never felt that way.
“It was a bit risky, of course, but I was not afraid of it,” he said. “Uno-X was already at such a high level that I knew the team would give me the same opportunities, maybe with even more support than from other teams. It did not feel like a step down – and looking back, it obviously wasn’t.”
His time with the Norwegian-Danish team has coincided with a major period in its history. Uno-X has moved from ProTeam status to the WorldTour, from chasing invitations to the biggest races to earning a more permanent place on major start lines.
Cort has been part of that shift, not only as a results rider but as a senior presence in a developing team. He won the 2024 Arctic Race of Norway overall, took a stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné that same season, then ended the year with a solo victory at the Veneto Classic, a win he now describes as one of his favourite memories in the team’s colours.
“It was a cool race to win and the only time I rode home alone,” Cort said of Veneto Classic. “It was unique to win a one-day race, because I have not won many of those. It was a nice way to end a season.”
One last Tour de France
Cort is not treating the rest of 2026 as a farewell lap. He still wants one more major result, with the Tour de France and possibly the Vuelta a España both in view.
“I will do everything I can to get a few more good results,” he said. “In the Tour de France, it would be absolutely fantastic to get a result, or to help Tobias to a good result. I might also ride the Vuelta, and a Grand Tour win in my last season would make me leave professional cycling in the best way.”
Uno-X Mobility head to the Tour with Tobias Halland Johannessen as their general classification leader. He is aiming for the top five overall, while Cort will be one of the team’s most experienced stage-hunting options. The squad also includes Anders Skaarseth, Søren Wærenskjold, Anthon Charmig, Jonas Abrahamsen, Anders Halland Johannessen and Torstein Træen.
For Cort, the Tour has always carried particular significance. His first stage win there remains his biggest career memory.
“I had always watched the Tour de France, for as long as I can remember, even before I started cycling,” he said. “So to arrive at the final boss and take a stage win in the Tour de France – that was big.”
A career built on timing and range
Cort’s best wins have rarely come from straightforward situations. He has never been a pure bunch sprinter, a pure climber or a pure Classics specialist. His strength has been the ability to survive hard routes, read breakaways and finish from small groups.
That range made him dangerous across all three Grand Tours. At the Vuelta, he became a repeated stage-winning threat. At the Tour, he won from breakaways and wore the king of the mountains jersey in 2022 after attacking repeatedly through the opening days in Denmark and France. At the Giro, he completed the Grand Tour stage-win set on a day when weather, endurance and timing all mattered.
His 2024 move to Uno-X also gave him a different late-career identity. Rather than fading inside a bigger WorldTeam structure, he became one of the key senior riders in a team on the rise. His results helped give the team credibility, while his experience gave the younger Scandinavian riders a reference point.
Cort said the environment at Uno-X was one of the reasons the final part of his career has meant so much.
“I have enjoyed this team and the camaraderie,” he said. “It is completely unique for a professional team. I have not experienced that before. I am happy to have been part of this journey. The team has been on a longer journey, but my three years have been fantastic – from ProTeam to WorldTour – and really feeling that you have contributed to that.”
More than colleagues
Cort also pointed to the Norwegian-Danish make-up of Uno-X as part of what made the team feel different. Shared language, similar culture and long-standing relationships within the squad have helped create an atmosphere he says he will miss.
“I think it creates a different camaraderie between the riders,” he said. “You understand each other more, and people more or less speak each other’s languages. The cultures are very similar as well, even though there are some Norwegian references we Danes do not always understand.”
The stability of the team has also been important.
“It has been a team with very few changes,” Cort said. “Even though I have only been part of it for three years, most of them have been here longer, and you can feel that they know each other. They are really friends you travel with, and not just colleagues.”
That community is what he expects to miss most after retirement.
“I do not quite know what I will miss, but I will probably miss the camaraderie at Uno-X. Not going out on trips and seeing your friends, and not having that community anymore.”
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Photo Credit: Getty
What comes next
Cort does not yet have a fixed plan for life after professional cycling. First, he wants space away from the structure that has defined more than a decade of his life. A trip to Nepal is already booked.
“I do not have any concrete plans,” he said. “Now I am going to enjoy life and find out what it is all about not sitting on a bike.”
His well-known hotel room ratings may not vanish completely either.
“I do not have plans for the ratings, but there will probably be some here and there,” he said. “Not so many, but maybe they will come. The fans just have to follow along – and I hope to surprise them.”
Before that, there is still racing to do. Sunday’s Danish National Championships are expected to be his final race on home roads, before attention turns fully to the Tour de France. Uno-X will hope Cort can still provide one more moment in red and yellow, either through his own breakaway instinct or by helping Johannessen in the general classification.
Cort’s career has been built on the kind of days that look too hard for sprinters and too tactical for pure climbers. That is why a final Grand Tour stage win still feels possible. He has made a career from finding the narrow opening, choosing the right move and finishing the job when the race is already broken.
The 2026 season will now be his last chance to do it.
