• 2022-05-15
• Tour de Hongrie

Eddie Dunbar is the winner of Tour de Hongrie

Final stage of Tour de Hongrie ended with a huge spectacular battle, at the end of the 184km etape from Miskolc to Gyöngyös-Kékestető, Italian Antonio Tiberi could overtake the Irish Eddie Dunbar in the climbs and hills of Kékes, but the rider of INEOS Grenadiers became the winner of the general classification. Eddie Dunbar is the first Irish winner of Tour de Hongrie.

Teams were waiting for the start in Miskolc with optimistic attitude, they had definitely different task today than during the last four race days. Tour de Hongrie ended on Sunday with the queen stage, peloton travelled 184km between Miskolc and Gyöngyös-Kékestető with an ascent of 2751 metres.

There was a first-category GPM in the very beginning of stage at the 10th km, so just after the official start several riders and groups attacked. We did not have to wait much for a successful breakaway. Italy's Nicolas Della Valle (Giotti Victoria-Savini Due) took the most points at the GPMs, he and his six mates were in the breakaway until the last ten kilometres, when the leaders of the race were caught by the peloton.

The second intermediate sprint at Mátrafüred was an important one concerning the points classification, as Rudy Barbier (Israel-Premier Tech) and the double stage winner, Dutch Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) had collected equal points so far. Well, we could not see this battle of these sprinters as Barbier was so unlucky, he had to stop due to technical problems, then Jakobsen could collect the points and with his success he defended the green jersey.

Moreover, the Dutch star was in the yellow jersey as he was the leader of the general classification before today's stage. However, he knew that he would not be able to keep his leading position on Sunday, so after the intermediate sprint he joined the back of the peloton. He knew he just had to finish the stage in the climbs and hills of Kékes.

 

Climbers came to the front, first the BORA-hansgrohe, then the INEOS Grenadiers were leading the peloton, with huge speed. The squad started to be smaller and smaller, at Mátraháza almost thirty riders were in the front, then just 2km before the finish line only twelve riders had a chance to win the stage.

Irish Eddie Dunbar attacked, the climber of INEOS changed his speed, the others could not go with him - however, there was one, who did not want to. Italy's Antonio Tiberi knew this climb very well, as he was third here last year. He knew, that the last kilometre would be a killer one...

200m before the finish line Dunbar had an advantage of 50m but he used all his energy and ran out of power for the finish. Tiberi could overtake him in the last metres - the Italian rider of TREK-Segafredo won the last stage of Tour de Hongrie. The 25-year-old Eddie Dunbar was not unhappy at all, he took the second place and, as Tiberi had a significant gap in the general standing, the Irish became the winner of the general classification of Tour de Hongrie and the first Irish in the 97-year-history of Tour de Hongrie to win the Hungarian race. Dunbar has achieved great results this year so far, he won an other five-stage-race, the Settimana Coppi e Bartali in March.

Probably most of you heard that earlier INEOS Grenadiers had applied for the participation in the Tour de Hongrie quite after the official announcement of the teams, however organisers were more than pleased to accept and confirm their participation as the squad is one of the strongests in the world. The British team entered the winner of 2020 Giro d'Italia Tao Geoghegan Hart too, but the Britton was unable to attend the race due to illness, INEOS competed with five riders.

They were working for the success of their Italian sprinter, Elia Viviani during the first four stages, he took a second and a fifth place in the bunch-sprints. Then, in the final stage INEOS Grenadiers took it all.

Márton Dina from EOLO-Kometa was the best Hungarian rider, he was 47th in the last stage, and took the 38th position in the general classification. But all the ten participating Hungarian riders did good job, showed themselves during the past five days and all of them could finish the race.