• 2023-02-28
• Tour de Hongrie

The route of Tour de Hongrie 2023 has been revealed!

Budapest, 879 km, 7554 metres of elevation, three flat stages, two summit finishes – the route of the 44th Tour de Hongrie was presented on 28 February 2023 in Budapest Music Center. 

Click here for more pictures. They are free for non-commercial use. Credits: tdh.hu/Zoltán Vanik, Márió Pertorini

The most important figures of Hungarian cycling attended the event, including:

• Károly Eisenkrammer - CEO of Vuelta Ltd., the general organiser,
• Máriusz Révész – Secretary of State, responsible for the development and promotion of active recreation
• Dr. Ádám Schmidt – Secretary of State, responsible for sports administration and development affairs
• Stephen Roche (above in the picture) – former World Champion, winner of Giro d’Italia and Tour de France
• Dániel Papp, CEO of MTVA (Media Services and Support Trust Fund)

Hungarian professional cyclists also took part the gala, including three-time Hungarian Champion Péter Kusztor (Team Novo Nordisk) and two-time Hungarian Champion Viktor Filutás. Some of the most important riders of the race’s history greeted the audience via video, such as five-time Tour de France stage winner, Dylan Groenewegen, reigning European Champion Fabio Jakobsen, or winner of Tour de Hongrie 2020, Attila Valter. Groenewegen and Jakobsen announced that they will participate in the race this year as well, after winning three stages in 2022.

The first ProSeries edition of Tour de Hongrie will feature nine WorldTeams, nine ProTeams, three Continental Teams and the National Team of Hungary. You can find the list of the participating teams here.

The official route:

Stage 1: Szentgotthárd – Szentgotthárd (168 km)

Start: 10.05.2023. (Wednesday), Szentgotthárd, Széll Kálmán square

Finish: Szentgotthárd, Sport Center, Kossuth Lajos street

The 44th Tour de Hongrie starts from Szentgotthárd. The peloton will head south-east, to the heart of Őrség National Park, before reaching Zalalövő and turning north. Then, they’ll get around Körmend to complete the loop. The riders have to tackle the lap two times, with two 3rd category climbs and three Intermediate Sprints along the way. The 168-km-long stage will most likely end in a bunch sprint.

Szentgotthárd, the westernmost city of Hungary, will host a Tour de Hongrie stage for the first time in its history. Due to the proximity of the Slovenian, Austrian and Croatian border, the organisers are expecting many foreign spectators along the roads.

Stage 2: Zalaegerszeg – Keszthely (175 km)

Start: 11.05.2023. (Thursday), Zalaegerszeg, Göcsej Museum, Batthány Lajos street

Finish: Keszthely, Georgikon street

Zalaegerszeg debuts as a stage host in 2023. The route takes the peloton towards Nagyvázsony, before turning south and reaching the northern shores of Lake Balaton. Two 3rd category climbs and three Intermediate Sprints are waiting for the riders, who will finish the stage in Keszthely, next to the famous Festetics Castle. Stage 2 includes only 900 metres of elevation, which indicates that the sprinters will fight for the victory.

The center of Zala County, was planned to host the finish of Stage 1 in 2017, but extreme weather conditions forced the organisers to cancel the etape. Six years later, Zalaegerszeg will finally debut in Tour de Hongrie as the host of a stage start.

Keszthely has a huge history in cycling: the coastal town of Lake Balaton is hosting Tour de Hongrie stages since 1930. A win in Keszthely tends to bring good luck: the last two riders who took victory here (Mihkel Räim in 2016 and Manuel Belletti in 2018) went on to win the General Classification too!

Stage 3: Kaposvár – Pécs (180 km)

Start: 12.05.2023. (Friday) Kaposvár, Gergely Csiky Theatre, Rákóczi square

Finish: Pécs, Zoo

An important day for the climbing specialists comes on 12 May. After a short lap around Kaposvár, the peloton heads south to reach the Mecsek Mountain and its capital, Pécs. The hilly parkour contains six categorized climbs and 2500+ metres of total elevation. The most difficult one is Bárány street: the 1,5-km climb has an average gradient over 11 percent, with sections up to 20 percent! The riders will have to tackle this monster three times, before finishing the stage just a few hundred metres away from the top, in front of Pécs Zoo.

This will be the third year in a row for Kaposvár with a major cycling race visiting the city. In 2021, Phil Bauhaus won Stage 1 of Tour de Hongrie in a bunch sprint, while in 2022, Grande Partenza of Giro d’Italia had a stage start in the capital of Somogy County. Tour de Hongrie have visited the city four times already.

Cycling in general is almost 130 years old in Pécs: the first cycling race between Budapest and the capital of Baranya County was held in 1894. The biggest cycling race of Hungary visited the 5th biggest city of the country 19 times, but the last occasion was 19 years ago. The last winner was Australian Philip Thuaux here, back in 2004.

Stage 4: Martonvásár – Dobogókő (206 km)

Start: 13.05.2023. (Saturday), Martonvásár, Brunszvik Castle

Finish: Dobogókő, mountaintop

The Queen Stage of Tour de Hongrie 2023 comes on 13 May. The 206-km-long route includes five categorized climbs and 2646 metres of elevation. Martonvásár will get the ball rolling for the first time in its history. The riders will then face 3 Intermediate Sprints, before reaching the Pilis Mountain. With the most popular cycling roads of the country being used, the route features the 2-km-long Pilisszántó climb three times, with an average gradient of 9 percent. After the last lap comes the only first category climb of the race: Dobogókő. It’s 5,2 percent average gradient is misleading: the last kilometre is almost completely flat, which makes team tactics extremely important with General Classification on the wire.

Brunszvik Castle of Martonvásár will feature a perfect background for the start of an extremely important stage. Although Martonvásár never hosted Tour de Hongrie before, the region did: the peloton departed from Csákvár in 2022, when Olav Kooij won in Székesfehérvár.

Dobogókő is probably the most popular cycling climb in Hungary, because its proximity to the capital and its beautiful nature. The slopes of the hardest climb in Pilis Mountain will host a stage finish for the first time, and almost certainly will crown the winner of Tour de Hongrie 2023.

Stage 5: Budapest – Budapest (150 km)

Start: 14.05.2023. (Sunday), Budapest, Császár-Komjádi Uszoda

Finish: Budapest, Császár-Komjádi Uszoda

Budapest celebrates the 150th anniversary of its foundation in 2023 – Tour de Hongrie joins the celebration with a 150-km-long final stage in the capital. The race starts from the northern bank of the Danube, next to Császár-Komjádi Swimming Pool. The almost 10-kilometre-long circuit includes the most popular tourist attractions of Budapest: Buda Castle, Parliament, Chain Bridge, Gellért Hill and Margaret Island. Only the winding roads of Budapest can stop the sprinters from fighting for another victory and the Green Jersey.

Budapest is the most frequently used city in Tour de Hongrie’s history: 77 stages started or finished here. Our first race ever departed from here back in 1925, and almost every edition held its last stage here until 2006. The last time Tour de Hongrie visited Budapest was back in 2021, when Edward Theuns won a spectacular sprint in Heroes’ Square.

Some interesting facts about the route:

• The five-day-long race travels through eight counties: Vas, Zala, Veszprém, Somogy, Baranya, Fejér, Komáron-Esztergom and Pest.
• The route includes 71 cities, towns or villages: eight of them will host a stage start or finish, nine will include an Intermediate Sprint.
• Tour de Hongrie 2023 has 15 categorized climbs – the most since 2008.
• The race is 879 km long, which makes this edition the third longest in the 21st century.