Double shot by Thibau Nys in the third stage of the Tour of Hungary 2024. The Lidl-Trek rider came out on top in the uphill finish of Gyöngyös-Kékestető, remounting and overtaking in the last 50 meters Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe), who had taken an advantage with a kilometer and a half to go but then crashed in the very last few hundred meters. In fact, the German was also overtaken by Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), who thus seizes second place behind the talented Belgian, the new leader of the Magyar race with a 4″ margin over the 34-year-old Tuscan and 6″ over Buchmann.

Stage Highlights

Ready to go, and it doesn’t take long for the day’s breakaway to form, with Siebe Deweirdt (Team Flanders Baloise), Balazs Rózsa (Epronex-Hungary Cycling Team), Manuel Penalver (Team Polti-Kometa), Christian Bagatin (Team MBH Bank Colpack Ballan), Yevgeniy Gidich and Michael Mørkøv (Astana Qazaqstan) being quickly let go. The six outriders can enjoy a maximum lead of 3’30” after 25 kilometers of the race, with the peloton keeping the outriders in check at that point, until they enter the final hundred kilometers, at which they appear with a gap of three minutes still.

From that point on, the pace changes, with Team dsm-firmenich PostNL holding the escapees to about 90 seconds, but the WorldTour formation decides to move on entering the final 50 kilometers. At that point, the lead grows again and the Pierre Baguette Cycling men of Peter Sagan and leader Martin Voltr take the lead, while Kristian Sbaragli (Team corratec – Vini Fantini) tries to move on the counter-attack, managing to get back to the front fairly quickly before the long climb to the finish begins.

Here the peloton arrives with a 40″ gap as Sbaragli increases the pace, with Penalver staying the last to his side, before beginning the actual repertorized climb. The Spaniard recovers just before entering the final eleven kilometers, with Sbaragli thus remaining alone in the lead, but the peloton now has only a dozen seconds to recover and goes to close on the Tuscan with 9000 meters to go. The UAE Team Emirates then takes the lead to maintain a steady pace, then replaced by Tudor Pro Cycling, but at this stage of the climb, which is quite rideable, few riders lose contact.

Just before entering the most challenging section, the last 3300 meters, Frank Van Den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) is the victim of a crash that forces him to chase, also because in the meantime in front a Bora-hansgrohe man has increased the pace to prepare for Emanuel Buchmann’s attack, also making a rather important selection. The German stretches out with 1,600 meters to go and seems to make the gap, entering the last kilometer with a lead of about ten seconds. However, the hard finish kicks in and Buchmann plants himself in the last 250 meters, while from behind Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) and Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) come up, with the Belgian going to jump the German in the finale and imposing himself on the Italian rider.