Tour de Hongrie Has Not Been Such a Success since 2020

The 46th Tour de Hongrie ended on Sunday, with Ecuador’s Harold Martín López (XDS Astana) winning overall, while Colombian Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates XRG) triumphed on the final day between Etyek and Esztergom.

Second-place finisher was Danny van Poppel (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe), taking the green jersey, who won two stages and finished second in two others to take the points’ classification by a comfortable margin. Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders–Baloise) won the red jersey with another impressive breakaway, marking the Belgian team’s third mountains classification victory in four years.

The best Hungarian was 19-year-old Bálint Feldhoffer (Team United Shipping), who finished seventh overall, 27 seconds behind López and won the white jersey.

Stage winner Molano told MTI that he had received an excellent lead from his teammates, and the plan was to start only three hundred meters from the finish because the cobbled climb before that was very difficult. “The last bend, one hundred and fifty meters from the finish, was crucial to turn there in second position,” he said.

López, who won the yellow jersey, said that this stage was like a one-day classic: it rained at the start, the wind added pressure to the end of the stage, and they had to complete the cobbled sections of Esztergom three times.

“It was not easy, but my teammates did an excellent job all day: they kept me in a good position, in the front, I am very happy. The yellow jersey is beautiful, but at the same time it is a big pressure because it is the most important color in cycling,” said the cyclist from Ecuador.

Feldhoffer, the top Hungarian cyclist, explained:

I knew that I had to be in front because there was a big chance of crashing and then I could lose the overall and the white jersey.”

He noted that it was difficult to ride around the finish, so he was happy to keep his place in the overall. “We can say that we finished a very good Tour de Hongrie as a team,” the young athlete concluded.

The 46th Tour de Hongrie, celebrating its centenary, took place between May 14 and 18. This year’s program included three flat stages, one mountain stage, and one transition stage.

The 885-kilometer race featured ten categorized climbs this year: in addition to the first category “climb” of Kékestető, cyclists had to conquer four second and five third category “climbs” to score mountain points, with a total of more than 7,000 meters of ascent. The route passed through a total of 101 towns and villages, in addition to the capital.

According to Domonkos Schneller, president of the Hungarian Cycling Federation (MKSZ), the Tour de Hongrie has not been as successful from a domestic perspective since 2020, as the 46th edition was.

The 2020 Hungarian Tour ended with Attila Valter’s overall victory, while last week Bálint Feldhoffer finished seventh overall.

“I do not think there has been such a successful Tour de Hongrie from a Hungarian point of view since 2020. On the one hand, because it has moved up a level since then and has become a Pro Series race, and on the other hand, because

there has never been so many Hungarian cyclists, fifteen of them, representing different teams in a Hungarian Tour,”

the MKSZ president told MTI.

“The fact that there were Hungarians running away practically every day in a World Tour-level field is a quite outstanding, unparalleled achievement. There are already three plus one continental level teams and maybe one of them will become a Pro Team from next year. From now on, the sky really is the limit for talented and committed young Hungarian cyclists,” said Domonkos Schneller. He added that he believes that Hungarians now could have access to almost all levels of international cycling.

Via MTI, Featured image: Hungary Today