2019

40. Tour de Hongrie

The twenty-four-year-old Latvian champion, Krists Neilands, took first place in the general classification with an impressive performance, winning two stages. Two young Hungarians were also able to stand on the podium in the final GC, Márton Dina was second, and Attila Valter was third. Thanks to Krisztián Lovassy, Hungary also had a stage winner again!

(Photos: Tdh.hu/Vanik Zoltán, Pertorini Márió, Halmágyi Zsolt, Tuba Zoltán)

The two-time Latvian road race champion, Krists Neilands won the 40th Tour de Hongrie. Already in the prologue in Siófok, he drew attention to himself with an excellent time result, he led almost all the way, but Czech time-trial specialist, Jan Bárta was finally able to overtake him by a few tenths of a second. Neilands also placed well in the first stage, the sprint finish in Esztergom, and finished in twelfth place, thereby maintaining his second place in overall.

A mountain stage in Miskolc followed, where he performed fantastically: attacking on the Bükkszentkereszt climb, he left the others, and was even able to increase his advantage over the hesitant pursuers in the long downhill, finally reaching the finish line more than a minute ahead of them.

Two half-stages followed. In the first, Krisztián Lovassy won from a breakaway, thus making him the first Hungarian stage winner of Tour de Hongrie since Sándor Szalontay in 2016! The second brought a sprint finish, Neilands only paid attention to his good position, both times he finished with the first group thus his advantage did not decrease. On the queen stage, on the Kékes climb, the Latvian rider showed that he wears the yellow jersey for a good reason: he left the entire race behind, only two young Hungarians were able to keep up with him. Márton Dina and Attila Valter performed quite amazingly, the two Hungarian competitors were able to stand on the podium, not only in the stage, but also in the overall competition!

The jubilee Tour de Hongrie brought serious progress once again: 129 riders from thirty-one countries on six continents took part in the 40th Tour de Hongrie, including sixteen domestic riders. We saw a stronger race than ever before: 4 ProContinental teams came to us this year, at the start in Siófok there was the defending champion Manuel Belletti's team, Italian Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec, another Italian club, Neri Sottoli - Selle Italia - KTM, the 2016 Tour de Hongrie winner Estonian Mihkel Raim's club, Israel Cycling Academy, and the French Cofidis team, competing in Hungary for the first time.

For the fourth time in the history of the race, the spectators were able to follow the events via live television broadcast, and for the first time there was a live broadcast of two stages on the Eurosport channel! The largest Hungarian bicycle race was broadcast live by M4Sport, but viewers could also see a live image on the internet, at mediaklikk.hu. The events of the Hungarian Tour were shown on all continents, in more than one hundred and fifty countries!

40. Tour de Hongrie (11-16 June 2019, 890 km)

Stage winners:
Prologue (Siófok, 4 km, individual time-trial): Jan Bárta (Czech, Elkov - Author) - in yellow: Bárta
Stage 1 (Velence - Esztergom, 194 km): Manuel Belletti (Italian, Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec) - in yellow: Belletti
Stage 2 (Balassagyarmat - Miskolc, 201 km): Krists Neilands (Latvian, Israel Cycling Academy) - in yellow: Neilands
Stage 3a (Kazincbarcika - Tiszafüred, 115 km): Lovassy Krisztián (Hungary) - in yellow: Neilands
Stage 3b (Tiszafüred - Hajdúszoboszló, 69 km): Alois Kankovsky (Czech, Elkov - Author) - in yellow: Neilands
Stage 4 (Karcag - Gyöngyös-Kékestető, 138 km): Krists Neilands (Latvian, Israel Cycling Academy) in yellow: Neilands
Stage 5 (Kecskemét - Székesfehérvár, 169 km): Wouter Wippert (Dutch, EvoPro Racing)

General Classification:
1. (in the yellow jersey) Krists Neilands (Latvian, Israel Cycling Academy) 21:12:00
2. Márton Dina (Hungarian, Kometa Cycling Team) +1:22
3. Attila Valter (Hungarian, CCC Development Team) +1:26
4. Edoardo Zardini (Italian, Neri Sottoli - Selle Italia - KTM) +1:45
5. Giovanni Visconti (Italian, Neri Sottoli - Selle Italia - KTM) +1:58
6. Juan Pedro Lopez (Spanish, Kometa Cycling Team) +2:04
7. Stefano Oldani (Italian, Kometa Cycling Team) +2:08
8. Daniel Munoz (Colombian, Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec) +2:16
9. Karel Hnik (Czech, Elkov - Author) +2:24
10. Mathias le Turnier (French, Cofidis) +2:24

Winner of the Points Classification:
(in the green jersey) Manuel Belletti (Italian, Androni Giocattoli Sidermec)

Winner of the Mountains Classification:
(in the red jersey) Krists Neilands (Latvian, Israel Cycling Academy)

Best Hungarian Rider:
2. (in the white jersey) Márton Dina (Kometa Cycling Team)

Winner of the Teams Classification:
CCC Development Team (Polish)