Tour de Hongrie

Jakob Söderqvist won in Pécs

Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek) won the chaotic 4th stage of the 47th Tour de Hongrie, taking the lead in the general classification.

The Tour de Hongrie peloton woke up to a rainy day on May 16. By the request of the teams, the organizers shortened the Mohács–Pécs stage—intended to be the race’s queen stage—by 41 kilometers; however, the mountain circuit that would decide the winner, featuring the steep climb on Bárány Road, remained unchanged. The intermediate sprints were moved to Szigeti út in Pécs, and the start was delayed by one hour, taking place at 13:00.

To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Mohács, the 106 competitors lined up at the start in the southernmost starting city in the race’s history—Ádám Révész (Campana Imbalaggi), Bert van Lerberghe (Soudal Quick-Step), and Byron Munton (Modern Adventure) were unable to continue the race. The starting ribbon was cut by Gábor Pávkovics, Mayor of Mohács; Áron Rózsahegyi, Member of the Parliament; Zsolt István Keszericze, President of the Zengő Sports Association; and Károly Eisenkrammer, the General Director of Tour de Hongrie.

Following the start, an eight-rider breakaway formed, which was reduced to four after Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek) made his move. The pace was maintained by Max Kanter (XDS Astana), wearing the green jersey as the second-place rider in the points classification, Spain’s Adrián Benito (Polti VisitMalta), and Italy’s Samuele Zoccarato (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort). The quartet’s lead remained around 2 minutes throughout the stage. Kanter fell behind his rivals on the first climb up Bárány Road and returned to the main peloton.

On Bárány Road, Benito won the first mountain sprints, taking the lead in the mountains classification. Meanwhile, in the peloton, Jayco AlUla set a blistering pace for their general classification leader, Luke Plapp, dropping even the yellow jersey holder, Tim Merlier.

Then, on the descent of the second lap, the race took a dramatic turn. First Kelland O’Brien (Jayco AlUla), then Yves Lampaert (Soudal Quick-Step) crashed. Due to the increasing rain and slippery road surface, the race jury decided to cancel the final lap of the route for safety reasons. Söderqvist first dropped Zoccorato, then Benito, and his lead proved sufficient at the finish—he won the queen stage. Benito finished second, and Plapp, the strongest rider in the main peloton, came in third.

"Today's extreme weather conditions and accidents posed a serious challenge for both the organizers and the judges." - said Károly Eisenkrammer regarding the removal of the final lap during the race. In the event of a sudden emergency, the race director and the head judge make decisions jointly. By the second lap, conditions on the slope had deteriorated dramatically. But we didn’t decide to shorten the course just because the road was slippery. We also did so because the successive crashes made it impossible to come down the slope again. Kelland O’Brien, who slid under the guardrail, was found by the organizers ten meters from the road. At first, nothing definite was known about the extent of his injuries (it has since been revealed that his condition is stable), meaning that, due to the circuit layout, a rescue operation for an athlete took place 20 km “before” the race. After assessing the situation and weighing the risks, the race director and the UCI official made a decision, which I also approved. All of this happened in about 2–3 minutes. In hindsight, I still believe we made the right decision."

Regarding the timekeeping however, he mentioned: "Regardless of whether the race was stopped, the question remained: what should the jury do with the times that had been recorded? A dilemma arose as to whether the shortened stage should count toward the overall classification or not. Deciding this was not within the organizers’ purview, but rather the jury’s responsibility. Since this was a rather complicated situation, our UCI referee also discussed it with the UCI headquarters. As a result, based on the results seen on the course, Sweden’s Jakob Söderqvist leads the overall standings and wears the yellow jersey."

With his victory, Söderqvist also took the lead in the general classification. His lead is substantial—40 seconds ahead of Benoit Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates) and 52 seconds ahead of Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla). In the points classification, Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) retained the lead. In the mountains classification, Benito took the lead. The white jersey went to the strongest Hungarian rider on the stage: Attila Valter (Bahrain Victorious) finished in 11th place and is currently 9th in the general classification.