A hard fight to establish the early breakaway meant that it was over 50 kilometres into the stage that the move off the front of the peloton formed. Once there, Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Ryan Gibbons (UAE Team Emirates), Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH), Cort and Bert Jan Lindeman (Qhubeka NextHash) quickly pushed out the gap, with the peloton seemingly uninterested in chasing.
That was until the gap hit the seven-minute mark and Australian squad Team BikeExchange came to the fore and began setting a very fast tempo with Robert Stannard and Andrey Zeits with 85 kilometres remaining. They received little help from other squads but achieved a rapid reduction in the breakaway's lead, slashing the gap down to just over three minutes with 50 kilometres to go on the outskirts of Valencia.
From there, the run to the finish was along the Mediterranean coast, and the teams of the contenders came to the fore to keep their leaders safe in the crosswinds and on the run into the short and steep Alto de Cullera that loomed at the finish to the stage.
The battle in the wind saw a number of riders including Adam Yates (INEOS Grenadiers), Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) and race leader Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) caught out and having to fight their way back to the peloton, with Carthy only just managing to return just ahead of the base of the final climb with 1.9 kilometres to go.
The breakaway hit the lower slopes with just 30 seconds lead on the peloton and a 1.9 kilometre, 9.4 per cent gradient climb to complete with an angry peloton breathing down their necks. Bou was the first to attack, but soon Lindeman and Cort emerged as the strongest, with Cort setting a relentless tempo and dropping his Dutch rival.
Behind, it was a blisteringly fast start to the climb, with INEOS Grenadiers exploding onto the early slopes and igniting a battle among the general classification contenders. Roglič tried an attack that was marked by Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) and Enric Mas (Movistar) before there was a bit of a lull in the pace.
At that point, Cort was nearly within touching distance but the distance to the line was also short, with less than a kilometre remaining. Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) came to the front of the elite group to try and chase down Cort and give himself the chance to win the stage, even surging clear in the final 500 metres in pursuit of the Danish rider.
The Australian wasn't able to match the acceleration of Roglič however when he attacked in the final few hundred metres and with one hundred metres to go it appeared that the Slovenian star might surge past Cort and take the stage win. However, the EF Education-Nippo rider was able to dig deep and claim a dramatic win.
"I looked back with 150 metres to go and I could see him coming,” Cort said of Roglič tracking him down at the finish. “I sprinted with everything I had and I luckily could keep him behind.
"This one is special for me in a very different way. The stages I win are always in sprints and I'm very happy to show I can also do it in other terrains and finish off a breakaway like this today."
Roglič claimed second, with Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-QuickStep) third, the Slovenian moving into the race lead, with previous leader Elissonde dropped on the steep slopes.
“I’m not at all disappointed. Magnus was just stronger, he had really good legs and definitely deserved the win,” Roglič said. “For myself, it wasn’t so much about the win. I was, first of all, trying to stay safe and then trying to enjoy it. In the end, I had good legs so did a little sprint.”
The Vuelta a España continues with Stage 7 a mountainous day in the saddle for the riders from Gandía to Balcón de Alicante over 152 kilometres. The broadcast on SBS VICELAND and SBS OnDemand starts at the earlier time of 2120 AEST, with the SKODA Tour Tracker starting at 2105 AEST.
