Winning the second stage of the Tour of Hungary 2024 is the timeless Mark Cavendish. Masterfully launched by his teammates, the British sprinter managed to put the wheel ahead of Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla) and Spaniard Jon Aberasturi (Euskaltel-Euskadi). For the 38-year-old from Astana Qazaqstan, this victory, number 164 in his career, also allows him to leapfrog to second place in the provisional general classification, five seconds behind Martin Voltr (Pierre Baguette Cycling), who also won bonus points today by going into a breakaway. Fifth and sixth place for the day went to two Azzurri, Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers).

Stage Highlights

It takes about five kilometers before the day’s breakaway emerges, consisting of Zsolt Istlstekker (Epronex-Hungary Cycling Team), Siebe Deweirdt (Team Flanders-Baloise), Christian Bagatin (Team MBH Bank Colpack Ballan) and, for the second day in a row, Martin Voltr (Pierre Baguette Cycling). The peloton is happy to give space and gives these men up to a three-minute lead, a gap that drops to 2’30” after the GPM of Erdőbénye thanks to the work of Bora-hansgrohe and Team Jayco AlUla, remaining so for long kilometers.

Entering the last 50, the gap slowly begins to decrease, dropping under a minute on the approach to the Tardona GPM, where the skirmishes between the escapees begin Along the climb, in fact Bagatin accelerates, conquers the GPM and climbs alone with a good margin of seconds on his former breakaway companions, while the peloton again loses something, passing at the top with just over a minute delay. In the following kilometers, having caught the other attackers, the Italian saw the peloton approach, maintaining about ten seconds at -10 from the finish and then being caught before the last eight kilometers.

Shortly after, at -6, there is a bad crash in the peloton for Dusan Rajovic (Bahrain Victorious), which also involves Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe): the Serbian national champion remains on the ground very sore, while the German manages to return immediately to the peloton. The final sprint is well set up by the long train of Astana Qazaqstan, which in the final 300 meters launches to perfection a Mark Cavendish who manages to resist the comeback of the ardent Dylan Groenewegen and goes on to take a fine sprint victory. A brilliant success that bodes well for the Tour de France in July, a race in which Cannonball will go in search of a historic 35th stage seal.