• 2023-05-11
• Tour de Hongrie

Hirschi conquered the fantastic stage in Pécs!

Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) won the 3rd stage of Tour de Hongrie betweeen Kaposvár and Pécs, taking the lead in the general classification as well. Egan Bernal finished 7th. The best Hungarian, Márton Dina now stands in 8th place overall after an outstanding performance.

Before the start gloomy weather greeted the Tour de Hongrie’s 126 competitors in Kaposvár. We could await a lot of excitement from the stage in advence since six categorized climbs were involved in the route, furthermore the finish line was placed on the top of a second category climb (2,3 km; 9%). The steep climbs of Bárány road induced that the time of the sprinters is over, and the fight for the general classification of Tour de Hongrie among the climbers would begin.

At the start, the mayor of Kaposvár and stage petrol Károly Szita; the international ambassador of the competition, Stephen Roche; the managing director of Kometa, Giacomo Pedranzini; the representative of the K3 SE Cycling Association, Donát Szerecz and the chief organizer, Károly Eisenkrammer cut the start ribbon. From the biggest contenders of the race, the winner of Tour de Hongrie 2021, Damien Howson (Q36.5) and the Austrian Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain Victorious) were not able to join the competitors.

Right after the start formed the breakaway with five cyclists: the group was made up of the red jersey, Matus Stocek (Slovakian, ATT Investments); his main rival, Italian Filippo Ridolfo (Novo Nordisk); Belgian Dries de Bondt (Alpecin - Deceuninck), and two Australians, Jarred Drizners (Lotto Dstny) and Cameron Scott (Bahrain Victorious). Stocek won all the intermediate sprints of the day, thus virtually taking the overall lead from Fabio Jakobsen by 7 seconds. Ridolfo was the first to triumph on the mountains: by winning the third category climb in Mánfa, and the second category climb in Pécs, he took the lead in the mountain points race.

In the peloton, INEOS and DSM controlled the pace, however on Bárány Road the attacks begun. Sebastian Schönberger (Human Powered Health), Silvan Dillier (Alpecin - Deceuninck) and Casper Pedersen (Soudal Quick-Step) were trying to attack - Dillier and Schönberger even succeeded, thus began to catch up riders in the breakaway. In the meantime the sprinters were not really happy because of the steepness of sections in Pécs: the yellow jersey, Fabio Jakobsen was dropped from the peloton together with Elia Viviani during the first climb.

The real fireworks started on the second climb of the wall in Pécs: first Egan Bernal changed the pace, then his teammate Jhonatan Narváez initiated an attack. Two excellent climbers, Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) and Oscar Onley (Team DSM) joined the Ecuadorian cyclist. Till the top of the mountain, Schönberger and Drizners shook off their fellow breakaway riders and started the descent together. Dries de Bondt was able to join Narváez's group, before the six riders joined their forces with 35 kilometers to go.

Since the strongest climber teams had one man each at the breakaway, there was no organized pursuit in the peloton for a long time. In the end, BORA, Tudor and Q36.5 took over, and their efforts were rewarded: they managed to catch the breakaway 17 kilometers before the finish line so a group of roughly 30 people arrived together to the last climb. 

INEOS launched its final attack 1.5 kilometers from the finish line, and only Marc Hirschi could reach Ben Tullett's pace. The Swiss then countered 1 kilometer from the finish and shook off his British rival. Nothing could stop him from there - he has won the stage and also has taken the lead in the general classification! Tullett took second place, and Team DSM's young rider, Max Poole took the third. Colombian superstar Egan Bernal finished seventh.

Hirschi recalled: he hadn’t intended to start too early but he had to react on Tullet’s attack and definitely wanted to be the first to reach the finish line, and at the same time to obtain the biggest possible time difference. As he said, his team brought him to the bottom of the climb, and in the last kilometres, it was all about pure pace.

The greatest sensation of the day was provided by Márton Dina, who finished tenth, advancing to eighth in general classification! Dina also took the lead in the Hungarian riders' classification. The green jersey was taken over by Stocek thanks to his intermediate sprint successes - so ATT Investments can look forward to the fourth stage with two distinctive jerseys! 


Tomorrow, Tour de Hongrie continues with the queen stage of the race: between Martonvásár and Dobogókő, 206 km, 2,600 meters of ascent, 5 categorized climbs and a first category mountain finish await the competitors.

44th Tour de Hongrie, Stage 3 (Kaposvár - Pécs, 180 km)

1. Marc Hirschi (Swiss, UAE Team Emirates) 4:26:50
2. Ben Tulett (British, INEOS Grenadiers) +0:08
3. Max Poole (British, Team DSM) +0:10
4. Sylvain Moniquet (Belgian, Lotto Dstny) +0:12
5. Oscar Onley (British,Team DSM) +0:12
6. Matteo Fabro (Italian, BORA - hansgrohe) +0:12
7. Egan Bernal (Columbian, INEOS Grenadiers) +0:12
8. Matteo Badilatti (Swiss, Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) +0:23
9. Yannis Voisard (Swiss, Tudor Pro Cycling Team) +0:23
10. Márton Dina (Hungarian, ATT Investments) +0:23

General Classification:

1. Marc Hirschi (Swiss, UAE Team Emirates) 4:26:50
2. Ben Tulett (British, INEOS Grenadiers) +0:10
3. Max Poole (British, Team DSM) +0:16
4. Oscar Onley (British, Team DSM) +0:22
5. Sylvain Moniquet (Belgian, Lotto Dstny) +0:22
6. Matteo Fabro (Italian, BORA - hansgrohe) +0:22
7. Egan Bernal (Columbian, INEOS Grenadiers) +0:24
8. Márton Dina (Hungarian, ATT Investments) +0:33
9. Yannis Voisard (Swiss, Tudor Pro Cycling Team) +0:33
10. Matteo Badilatti (Swiss, Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) +0:33

Winner of the Points Classification: Matus Stocek (Slovak, ATT Investments)

Winner of the Mountains Classification: Filippo Ridolfo (Italian, Team Novo Nordisk)

The best Hungarian competitor in General Classification: Márton Dina (ATT Investments)

Final results: HERE