Tour de Hongrie

Van Poppel won the first stage of the centenary Tour de Hongrie

Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe rider Danny van Poppel surprisingly triumphed in front of Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl - Trek) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) at the end of Stage 1 in Győr.

Following the team presentation, which attracted huge crowds, many fans once again gathered at the Műegyetem Rakpart on the morning of 14 May to watch the start of the centenary Tour de Hongrie. The ribbon was cut by Gergely Karácsony, Mayor of Budapest; Attila Erhardt, Deputy Mayor of Újbuda; Domonkos Schneller, President of the Hungarian Cycling Federation; Máriusz Révész, State Secretary for Active Hungary; Gábor Schmidt, Deputy State Secretary for Sports Administration and Development; and Károly Eisenkrammer, Tour de Hongrie General Director. The race start took place on St Gellért Square, where 100 years earlier the first Tour de Hongrie had begun.

After a long fight for the breakaway, defending Mountains Classification Champion Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders - Baloise), European Cyclo-Cross Champion Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen - Cibel Clementines); former White Jersey winner János Pelikán (Team United Shipping) and Italian Matteo Ambrosini (MBH Bank Ballan CSB) managed to pull away. Jayco AlUla kept their lead around 1.5 minutes, with Ben Wiggins in particular working hard for team sprinter Dylan Groenewegen.

Deweirdt picked up where he left off last year, winning both of the day's third category GPM's, Etyek and Pannonhalma. He will wear the Red Jersey once again. János Pelikán, meanwhile, excelled in the Intermediate Sprints: his bonus seconds in Mór and Győrújbarát earned him the White Jersey for the Best Hungarian Rider.

The breakaway was caught 5 kilometres from the finish. In the sprint, it was Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe who took control: Sam Welsford's lead-out man Danny van Poppel broke away from the others at the last bend and his rivals could not catch him at the finish. Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl - Trek) finished second, Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) third. With his success, van Poppel is in first place in both the General Classification and the Points Classification.