Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) took solo victory in the Tour de Hongrie’s queen stage after a late attack. With the first professional success of his career, the Swiss cyclist climbed to 3rd place in the general classification. The biggest contenders reached the finish line together, Marc Hirschi was able to keep the yellow jersey.
Stage 4 of Tour de Hongrie started in front of Brunszvik Castle in Martonvásár. The 206-kilometer-long Queen Stage was awaited with a particular interest since containing five categorized climbs and an uphill finish in Dobogókő it was destined to decide the fate of the general classification.
The start ribbon was cut jointly by the chief organizer, Károly Eisenkrammer; the international ambassador of the competition, Stephen Roche; the mayor of Martonvásár and stage patron, dr. Tibor Szabó; the leader of Marton Genetics, András Sándorfy; the owner and president of Remred Ltd., dr. István Sárhegyi; and Zoltán Tessely, government commissioner and representative of the parliament. After the ceremony mounted hussars led the competitors to the slow start, and after the actual start, the attacks began immediately.
Finally six cyclists managed to get in the breakaway: Sebastian Schönberger (Human Powered Health) riding for the red jersey, Dries de Bondt (Alpecin - Deceuninck), who attacked yesterday also, Yves Lampaert (Soudal - Quick-Step), David Martin (EOLO - Kometa), Matyas Kopecky (Team Novo Nordisk), and Jasper de Buyst (Lotto Dstny). The first part of the day took part on flat countryside, the three intermediate sprints in Etyek, Bicske and Esztergom were all won by Dries de Bondt. Meanwhile UAE Team Emirates, the team of yellow jersey wearer Marc Hirschi tried to controll the pace.
On the last one hundred kilometers the uphills played the main role. Schönberger attacked on the second category ascent of Két-bükkfa-nyereg, and took the lead in the mountains classification with his 10 points. Before climbing Pilisszántó for the second time he got in a serious debate with de Bondt, and later he stayed back to the peloton. Later David Martin and Matyas Kopecky were also caught by the peloton, so the three Belgian riders stayed in front. With 24 kilometers from the finish line, they still had an advantage of 3,5 minutes. The top teams were more interested in the general classification than the stage victory, and after Schönberger were caught, there was no threatening man left for them in the leading group.
The pace started to increase significantly only on the last lap - first DSM took control, then INEOS tried to weaken the team of the yellow jersey with repeated actions. The last UAE domestic, Finn Fisher-Black, dropped 5 kilometers from the finish line - after that Hirschi was constantly attacked, and had to fight his rivals alone.
On Dobogókő, 2 kilometers from the finish line the last two riders of the breakaway, de Buyst and Lampaert were caught. Shortly before, Tudor's Swiss climber, Yannis Voisard attacked, and noone could catch him up to the finish line. He took the first professional victory of his career, and he advanced all the way to third place in the general classification!
The other GC contenders arrived at the finish line together: the group sprinted for second place, which Thibau Nys (Trek - Segafredo) took in front of Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny). Hirschi finished in fourth place, thus retaining the yellow jersey. The best Hungarian of the competition was once again Dina Márton, who finished in 25th place, 48 seconds behind Voisard.
Thanks to his mountain sprints successes, the red jersey went to Sebastian Schönberger, who, if he finishes the last stage, will surely keep it. It can be a huge fight for the green jersey though: Matus Stocek is still leading thanks to his intermediate sprint successes, but several sprinters are competing for his throne. The white jersey still belongs to Dina by a confident margin.
Hirschi recalled to M4 Sport: they rolled in a large group at the final kilometers, and he could not react to each attack, so he is very happy that he could keep his jersey. As he said, many young cyclists rode with them, and he didn't know everyone, so he had to wait until he was informed via radio about the currently attacking rival. He emphasized the help of his teammate, Finn Fisher-Black, who repeatedly overtook the attackers, without him he would have lost his jersey. "I'm very happy, and if everything goes well, I can keep my first place tomorrow, although the city circuit carries the risk of crashes, especially when it's raining" - he added.
Voisard emphasized: he won took the biggest victory of his career. As he said, the end of the stage was not really steep, so there was a big tactical battle, and he was able to start his attack at a good pace two kilometers before the finish line.
On 14 May (Sunday), Tour de Hongrie will end with a 150-kilometer flat stage in 150-year-old Budapest.
44th Tour de Hongrie, Stage 4 (Martonvásár - Dobogókő, 206 km)
General Classification:
Leader of the Points Classification: Matus Stocek (Slovak, ATT Investments)
Leader of the Mountains Classification: Sebastian Schönberger (Austrian, Human Powered Health)
The best Hungarian rider in General Classification: Márton Dina (Hungarian, ATT Investments)
Final Results: HERE
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