Mark Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) came away from the final climb in Pécs and won stage 3 of the Tour de Hongrie.
Ben Tulett (Ineos Grenadiers) was able to hold on to second place, crossing the hill ahead of Max Poole (Team DSM).
Ineos Grenadiers increased the pace at the front of the race with 2.5km to go, skipping several sharp corners with Team DSM, Lotto Dstny and UAE Team Emirates trying to place riders on the final climb. Arriving at the Allatkert climb, Egan Bernal launched the Ineos route and launched Tulett.
Hirschi refused to hold his wheel and two parallel strokes on the steepest section until the Swiss rider pulled away with 1.2km to go. Hirschi held on until the end for his first victory of the season.
The golden jersey as the leader of the competition transfers to the shoulders of Hirschi and wins.
“It was very difficult. We went completely into it [final climb] for land. Then Ben Tulett attacked very early. I can only follow, then I opened it. I have to go, I had something left. Everyone was on top,” Hirschi concluded.
How it turned out
An important day for the professional climbers, stage 3 started with a short circuit around Kaposvár and the peloton headed south towards Mecsek Mountain and its capital, Pécs. The mountain route consisted of six high mountains with an altitude of 2,500 meters. The most difficult climb came on the Bárány road in the final stages, a 2.3km climb to Allatkert over 11%, with sections up to 20%, driven three times.
At the start of the 100km, most of the sprinters had already been dropped by the peloton, including Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep) and Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers). Five riders made up the front group that opened up a gap of three minutes at a fracturing speed with 145km to go, a group consisting of Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Cameron Scott (Winner in Bahrain), Filippo Ridolfo (Team Novo Nordisk), Jarrad Drizners (Lotto Dstny) and the leader of mountain groups Matúš Stoček (ATT Investments).
In the middle of stage 3 of 179.9km, the front group tackled the first double climb of the 5.1km distance of Melegmányi and the first sections that were over 14%. Passing up and down, Sebastian Schönberger (Human Powered Health) and Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) joined the leaders.
On the second trip to Melegmányi, the division formed the front group while Schönberger allowed a breakaway route. From the chase behind, Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers), Oscar Onley (Team DSM) and Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) exchanged places with Scott and Ridolfo, who stopped chasing. With 35km to go, Dillier was chasing and with two climbs to go.
With 23km to go, the six leaders saw their gap shrink to 30 seconds, chased by Bora-Hansgrohe, Ineos and UAE Team Emirates, and a catch was made with 18km to go. It was up to the riders to gain ground and use the energy left on the last hill to the finish line, which proved to be the only rider, Hirschi.
Results
Results with the help of FirstCycling (opens in a new tab)
