Tim Merlier won his second stage of the Tour de Hongrie on Friday, sprinting clear on what was a cold, wet day in the saddle.
The Soudal-QuickStep rider followed Fernando Gaviria, who launched his trademark late sprint; the Belgian launched off the wheel to take victory. The Caja Rural-Seguros RGa rider finished second, with Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in third place.
Jayco-AlUla did much of the work, catching the last of five breakaway riders with 13km to go, while Merlier’s Soudal-QuickStep occasionally helped out. With 5km remaining, Flanders Baloise and NSN formed their trains, but on wide, wet roads, the final was chaotic, with only Jayco exerting any control.
Only inside the final 2km did Merlier’s team emerge from the melée. Yves Lampaert got a gap on the exit to a right-hand bend, but when he was caught, Merlier was perfectly positioned to take the win.
After the opening sprint stage and a punchy finish to Thursday's wind-affected race, the third of five stages brought the race's first proper climbing, with the two third-category climbs punctuating the 152.8km stage between Kaposvár and Szekszárd.
Almost as soon as the flag dropped, five riders attacked, with Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek)) Victor Vercouillie (Flanders Baloise), Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), Erik Fetter (United Shipping) and Ádám Résész (Campana Imballagi-Morbiato-Trentino) quickly building a lead.
Three of the breakaway riders had started the day within 16 seconds of overall leader, Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), so the group were kept on a short leash throughout the day, their lead initially allowed to settle at 1.50.
Fetter won the intermediate sprint at Kaposvár, at the end of an opening, 26.4km loop and, just under 20km later, with the gap coming down on the classified climb to Gödre, Vercouillie attacked. The Belgian was unable to take the points at the top of the climb; however, Fetter took the honours there, too, putting himself at the top of the mountains classification.
From there, the leaders' advantage settled around 1:30. Fetter took the next intermediate sprint, this one at Komló, with 68km remaining and just ahead of the day's main climb to Komló-Zobákpusta. By the time the leading group crested the top, Vercouillie taking maximum points, their lead was down to only 50 seconds, where it remained.
With the group down to four after Résész crashed on a wet corner, and by the time Vercouillie won the final intermediate sprint 25km from the line, the peloton was just 30 seconds behind, the catch inevitable.
Saturday's fourth stage sees the peloton take on 188.2 kilometres between Mohács and Pécs, with the day finishing with three laps of a closing circuit which includes a 1.8km climb. Averaging more than 10% gradient, the race finishes halfway up, making for a challenging and punchy final.
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