Tour de Hongrie

Thibau Nys wins Tour de Hongrie!

Dutchman Wout Poels won the last stage of Tour de Hongrie 2024 in Pécs. Thibau Nys fought off all attacks to finish in fourth place, making him the winner of the general classification.

On the final 173-kilometre stage of the 45th Tour de Hongrie between Siófok and Pécs, the 117 cyclists had to face 3 categorised climbs and 2300 metres of elevation. At the foot of the Water Tower, Mihály Witzmann, Member of Parliament of Somogy County; Dr. Péter Princzinger, President of the Hungarian Cycling Federation and CEO of Visit Balaton 365, the sponsor of the yellow jersey; Dr. Róbert Lengyel, Mayor of Siófok and stage patron; Dr. Gábor Nagy, Deputy Mayor of Siófok; and Károly Eisenkrammer, Chief Organiser, cut the starting ribbon.

The pace was really high right after the start: in the first hour of racing, no breakaway was formed. Finally, the 11-man group of Andrew August (INEOS Grenadiers), Kelland O'Brien (Jayco AlUla), Pavel Bittner (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Dusan Rajovic (Bahrain Victorious), David Martin (Polti - Kometa), Vincent van Hemelen (Flanders - Baloise), Matthijs Paasschens (Lotto Dstny), Andoni Lopez de Abetxuko (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Niccoló Bonifazio (Corratec - Vini Fantini), Adam Toupalik (TDT - Unibet) and Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team) broke away.

The protagonist of the breakaway was Cavendish, who took all three intermediate sprints and the lead of the Points Classification. The biggest lead of the breakaway was 5 minutes, but there was no doubt that the GC favourites would battle it out for the stage win.

The sprinters, including Mark Cavendish, were quickly dropped on the steep slopes of Bárány Road. In the peloton, UAE Team Emirates set the pace. The attacks started on the second lap. Frank van den Broek (Team dsm-Firmenich PostNL) and Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) tried to get in front, but the group of favourites eventually closed the gap. At the top of the climb, only two escapees, van Hemelen and O'Brien, were left in the lead, but as the final lap approached, they too were caught by the peloton of around 30 riders.

In the final lap, Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) and then Emanuel Buchmann (BORA - hansgrohe) accelerated. With 1km to go, four riders managed to break away: the yellow jersey Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), 2021 champion Damien Howson (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Callum Scotson (Jayco AlUla) and Buchmann. The German attacked again in the final 500 metres, but could not shake off his rivals. Former Liége-Bastogne-Liége winner Wout Poels then attacked from the back of the group to win the stage. Buchmann was also overtaken at the finish by Howson, while Nys finished in 4th place with the same time to win the 45th Tour de Hongrie! With Ulissi dropped, Buchmann moved up to 2nd, Poels to 3rd overall.

The green jersey also went to Nys thanks to his eight points at the finish - just three points ahead of Mark Cavendish, who spent the day in the breakaway.

Flanders Baloise retained the red jersey: as Vincent van Hemelen took two GPMs ahead of his rivals, his teammate Siebe Deweirdt won the Mountains Classification.

Márton Dina won the Best Hungarian Rider Classification for a record-breaking fourth time as he finished 13th in the General Classification.