After several challenging days in the mountains, a rolling 191.2-kilometre stage 19 always looked ripe for a breakaway, and Denmark's Court and his EF team-mate Lawson Craddock of the United States powered to a brilliant stage victory after holding off the peloton for almost the entire stage.

The early break held off a roaring peloton, despite never establishing a lead of more than three minutes, with Craddock burying himself for his team-mate to maintain a dwindling gap.

In the final metres, led out by Craddock, Cort sprinted clear of Portugal's Rui Oliveira of UAE Team Emirates and the United States' Quinn Simmons of Trek-Segafredo to take his third stage in a time of 4 hours 24min 54 sec.

Oliviera and Simmons finished on the same time as Cort, with Craddock dropping five seconds off the pace after dropping his team-mate at the line.

The peloton came in 18 seconds down on the leaders.

"It’s amazing – it’s a dream now and I really hope I don’t wake up," Cort said, as reported by Eurosport.

"It was not until the last five or six kilometres that I started believing.

"They always kept us close and it was a really hard day. 

"Everybody had tired legs and it was hard to work well together over this hilly terrain. 

"I could not have done this without my teammate Lawson Craddock supporting me in the breakaway so I must thank him for everything he did today."

In the peloton, Slovenian Primož Roglič of Jumbo-Visma, who is well on his way to winning his third Vuelta, collected his 50th Grand Tour leader's jersey, maintaining his 2min 30sec lead over Spain's Enric Mas of Movistar.

Tomorrow's 202.2km stage from Sanxenxo to Mos. Castro de Herville is a slightly hillier affair, with one first category climb, one third category climb and three second category climbs, the last of which is a summit finish.