1925

1st Tour de Hongrie: The dawn of the Tour

Almost a century ago, (27 June 1925) the peloton of the first Tour de Hongrie started it's journey at 4:00 A.M. from the Gellert Hotel of Budapest. 

The biggest Hungarian daily at the time, the Est wrote about the start of the Tour

The 1st Tour de Hongrie was organised by the Budai Kerékpár Egylet, and followed the standards of the Tour de France, which was already a well establised cycling race for two decades at the time. The chief patrons of the race were regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, Miklós Horthy, and Archduke Joseph August of Austria.

„The "Hungarian Tour de France" is a very unique cycling event in the history of Hungarian sport. It was organized absolutely perfectly considering the sports professional, public relations and propaganda roles of the race. No doubt, that the event organizing was even more accurate and detailed than what Germans are capable of” – wrote the Nemzeti Sport, Hungarian daily sport newspaper in 1925.

The 3-day long stage race had the total distance of 510 km. The peloton rode from Budapest to Szombathely (240 km), and from Szombathely to Győr (140,5 km), before returning to the Hungarian capital (130 km). The riders were set off in 3 groups at ten-minute intervals. In the 1st stage already, Károly Jerzsabek (Hungarian, Team MTK) easily bridged from the 2nd group to the leaders, and won the race by a large margin.

Károly Jerzsabek, the first winner of the Tour de Hongrie

1st Tour de Hongrie (27-29 June 1925, 510,5 km)

Stage Winners:
Stage 1 (Budapest-Szombathely, 240 km): Károly Jerzsabek (Hungarian, MTK)
Stage 2 (Szombathely-Győr, 140,5 km): Medgyes (Hungarian, Postás)
Stage 3 (Győr-Budapest, 130 km): Mihály Rusovszky (Hungarian, MTK)

General Classification:
1. Károly Jerzsabek (Hungarian, MTK) 22:11:00
2. Gedeon Ladányi (Hungarian, MTK)
3. József Bouska II. (Hungarian, JKK)