During the season, the racing never really stops – riders shuttle from one event to another, spending half their life living out of a suitcase at training camps or events spread across the world. But for all but the most race-focused cycling media, it’s rare to have a touchpoint at one race and then immediately back it up at the next; to see Magnus Cort in Nice at the end of three weeks of Grand Touring, and to encounter him again in Northern Norway two weeks later.
Cort’s Tour de France was full of his typically charismatic breakaways and colourful hotel reviews on Instagram, but it was perhaps his moustache that generated the most headlines. The moustache isn’t new – it has accented the friendly Dane’s face for years – but this Tour it gained a new feature midway through the race. You see, Cort found himself agreeing to a social media challenge from a Danish influencer: if his Instagram followers hit 200,000 – an increase of more than 60,000 – then he’d dye his moustache. Less than 24 hours later, the deal was done, and Cort had a date with a hair stylist on the Tour’s second rest day. His Tour would end with a smurf-blue moustache.
At the team presentation of the Arctic Race of Norway, Cort’s Uno-X Mobility team received the biggest cheers of the day – of course they did – and as the team stepped off the stage I grabbed Cort for a quick chat. Not about the racing, of course: I just wanted to know the lifespan of a blue moustache.
Maybe you would, too.
IT: Do you have a moment for a quick chat?
MC: Of course.
IT: The moustache. It’s no longer blue!
MC: Nah.
IT: I would like to know the process of getting rid of the blue moustache.
MC: Well … It just happened, gradually. I think if you saw it in the Tour, it was also losing colour slowly that week that I had it…
IT: But it went through some quite nice shades.
MC: Yeah, it did!
IT: Like, almost this colour here…
[I gesture at an eggshell blue Hyundai electric car that the riders have been signing, that we are standing next to. Cort nods sagely.]
MC: Yeah, it was.
IT: What was your favourite shade that it was?
MC: [pauses, smiling]
IT: This is not a cycling interview.
MC: [smile grows] Well, it started blue – that was the idea – but then it faded into a little bit of a greenish shade … and … yeah.
IT: Was there a bit of extra scrubbing in the shower?
MC: After the Tour, I did a little bit of extra scrubbing, but then I was on holidays, and I was swimming a bit in the ocean. I think within a week after the Tour it was pretty much gone because of the saltwater.
IT: Your girlfriend was not so happy with the moustache, I understand – she didn’t love the colour –
MC: My girlfriend, nah. But actually she was alright with it in the end – she enjoyed matching it with different things that we saw in the same shade afterwards.
IT: Do you think there’s any risk of it coming back, now that she’s expressed a preference?
MC: Ah … for the moment not. Sorry.
IT: Ah. That’s quite sad. I’m a bit disappointed to hear that.
MC: Or see, maybe if there’s another gimmick coming at some point … but I’ve got nothing planned.
IT: Well, you need to set the next Instagram target – and then a different colour – maybe a nice black moustache?
MC: Yeah, that would be nice – that was what I hoped for actually. Instead of the strong blue colour, but … yeah.
IT: I think the strong blue colour had some good character.
MC: Thank you.
IT: Thanks for your time.
MC: No problem.
[Magnus Cort exits the scene]
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