Magnus Corto's uphill finish in the opening round of the Giro d'Italia in Visegrad, where he was looking to achieve a stage victory in the Grand Tour, left the EF Education Easy Post rider with no complaints.

Corto, who is still recovering from a broken collarbone and wrist suffered earlier this season, went into the Giro d'Italia unsure how his form would hold up in the first Grand Tour of the year.

Mathieu van der Pol (Alpecin-Phoenix) won the stage ahead of Biniam Guillemay (Intermarché-Wantigover) and Pero Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorias). 29-year-old Cort came very close to winning, but was The 29-year-old Cote said he was a little disappointed that he came so close to winning but could not pull it off.

But in the big picture, he knew that coming so close was a positive sign that his condition was improving, something he would need to continue fighting for in the future.

"With about 100 meters to go, my legs started to cramp up and the other guys passed me pretty fast.

"But I'm happy to come back from my injury so strong and I really have high hopes for the next few weeks. If I was in the mix in this final, I wanted to make sure my legs were good and they definitely were."

In a finale where the speed and direction of the surface changed several times, making it very difficult to calculate his strength, Cote said he reacted to Wilco Kelderman's (Bora Hansgrohe) move when he attacked for a long distance.

"When he slowed down a little bit, I thought, 'Now's my chance,' and I think I could have pushed hard for about 50 meters. But then he completely exploded and I just watched the other racers go around me." Still, he finished fourth, one spot ahead of Kelderman.

Colt won the first of his three stage wins at the 2021 Vuelta a España, fending off a peloton led by Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma). But he said that even though the Hungarian and Spanish mountains looked similar, the race conditions were fundamentally different.

"In Spain, I went into the climb alone from a breakaway group, and the peloton came after me from behind and closed in.

"Here you sit in a group, fighting for wheels, and it's very difficult not to use too much energy and sit too far back as well.

On the fast climbs, Colt also used valuable energy as the peloton occasionally hit the brakes.

"I think it's the same for the others, if you can drive perfectly on the climbs it makes a big difference. But it's almost impossible when there are so many corners where you lose speed every time you get to the inside."

It was not only his condition that proved strong on the climbs: Cote also relied on the strong support of his teammates. With the race just getting underway, this combination could only be good news.

"The team rode really well. They led with me for the last 30km and we were in a good position going into the climb.

His motivation couldn't be higher, coming back from such a difficult injury and with the Giro ahead of him.