TOUR DE HONGRIE
Bauhaus draws first blood
The opening stage of the 42nd Tour de Hongrie, held today between Siófok and
Kaposvár, came down to a bunch sprint in which German rider Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain
Victorious) edged out Italian Jakub Mareczko (Vini Zabù) and Belgian Jordi Meeus
(Bora–Hansgrohe) to take his second win of the season and don the first leader’s yellow
jersey.
130 riders took the start of the 42nd edition of the Tour de Hongrie in Siófok, a spa town on the
shores of Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe. The mechanics’ decision to inflate
the tubular tyres of the bicycles somewhat less than usual in response to the ominous skies
proved to be a smart move as the first drops started to fall right before the neutralised start of
the 173 km inaugural stage. The road was already soaked by the time Spaniard Diego Pablo
Sevilla (Eolo–Kometa) and Slovenian Aljaž Omrzel (Adria Mobil) formed the first breakaway of
the day.
However, the duo was reeled in before the first intermediate sprint, 12.6 km into the stage,
where Edward Theuns (Trek–Segafredo) claimed the three-second time bonus ahead of Taj
Jones (Israel Start-Up Nation), who took two seconds, and Alan Banaszek (Mazowsze–Serce
Polski), who got one.
A three-man group opened up a gap in the approach to Igal, the only categorised climb on
today’s menu. It was Diego Pablo Sevilla rolling the dice again, this time with the 20-year-old
Belgian track specialist Fabio Van den Bossche (Sport Vlaanderen–Baloise), who featured in
an escape in the Tour of Flanders, and Pole Patryk Stosz (Voster ATS Team), the winner of
the mountains classification in the 2018 Tour de Hongrie. Now riding on dry roads, Stosz was
the first rider over the top of the category 3 Igal climb, 47.5 km into the stage —good enough
for the victor of the 2020 Tour of Bulgaria to secure the first best climber’s jersey at the end of
the opening stage.
The gap peaked at 3′30″ and, despite the high pace (with an average speed of 43.5 km/h after
two hours of racing), it had dwindled to just 2′16″ by km 90. The N-shaped course headed back
to the shores of Lake Balaton for the second intermediate sprint with 71 km to go. A voracious
Stosz took first place here too, ahead of Sevilla and Van den Bossche. By this point, the teams
of sprinters Jakub Mareczko (Vini Zabù) and Mikhel Räim (Mazowsze–Serce Polski) had cut
their margin over the peloton to 1′30″. The Slovakian national champion, Peter Sagan’s brother
Juraj (Bora–Hansgrohe), added more fuel to the fire a bit later.
STAGE RESULT
- Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) en 3h54‘22‘’
- Jakub Mareczko (Vini Zabu), mt
- Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe), m
INDIVIDUAL GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
- Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) en 3h54‘12‘’
- Jakub Mareczko (Vini Zabu), à 00’04’’
- Patryk Stosz (Voster ATS Team), à 00’04’’
