Tour de Hongrie: Mark Hirschi takes control of race lead with uphill victory on stage 3

Mark Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) pulled away on the final climb in Pécs and won stage 3 of the Tour de Hongrie. 

Ben Tulett (Ineos Grenadiers) managed to hold on to second place, crossing the uphill finish ahead of Max Poole (Team DSM).

Ineos Grenadiers increased the pace at the front of the race with 2.5km to go, swooping through several sharp corners with Team DSM, Lotto Dstny and UAE Team Emirates trying to position riders into the final climb. Once on the steep slopes of the Allatkert climb, Egan Bernal set the pace for Ineos and launched Tulett. 

Hirschi countered to catch his wheel, and the two matched pedal strokes across the steepest section until the Swiss rider pulled away with 1.2km to go. Hirschi soloed to the finish for his first victory of the season.

The golden jersey as race leader transfers to the shoulders of Hirschi with the win. He has a 10-second margin over Tulett, who is second overall. The DSM duo of Poole and Oscar Onley are now third and fourth overall, Poole 16 seconds back and Onley 22 seconds back, tied on time with Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny) and Matteo Fabbro (Bora-Hansgrohe).

“It was super hard. We went full gas into it [final climb] for positioning. Then Ben Tulett attacked super early. I could just follow, and then I opened it up. I have to go, I had something left. Everybody was on the limit and small differences in the mind can make a big difference in that situation,” Hirschi said at the finish.

"It’s really nice to get my first win of the season and I’m really happy. The race is not over, tomorrow is a hard day so we’ll give it a good shot .”

How it unfolded

An important day for the climbing specialists, stage 3 began with a short lap around Kaposvár, and the peloton headed south to reach the Mecsek Mountain and its capital, Pécs. The hilly route contained six categorised climbs and 2,500 metres of total elevation. The most difficult ascent came on Bárány street on the finish circuits, the 2.3km climb up Allatkert averaging over 11%, with sections up to 20%, tackled three times. 

In the opening 100km, many of the top sprinters had already been dropped by the peloton, including Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep) and Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers). Five riders had formed a front group that had opened a three-minute gap over the fracturing peloton with 145km to go, the group containing Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Cameron Scott (Bahrain Victorious), Filippo Ridolfo (Team Novo Nordisk), Jarrad Drizners (Lotto Dstny) and mountains classification leader Matúš Stoček (ATT Investments).

Passing midway through the 179.9km stage 3, the front group tackled the first of two ascents of the 5.1km Melegmányi with early sections averaging over 14% gradient. Across the top and on the descent, Sebastian Schönberger (Human Powered Health) and Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) joined the leaders. 

On the second pass up Melegmányi of the wall in Pécs, it was Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) to accelerate and launch an attack by teammate Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers). Splits formed in the front group as Schönberger led the way for the breakaway. From accelerations behind, Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers), Oscar Onley (Team DSM) and Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) had switched places with Scott and Ridolfo, who had dropped back to chase. Dries de Bondt was able to join Narváez's group, before the six riders joined their forces with 35 kilometers to go.

With 23km to go, the six leaders saw their gap dwindle to under 30 seconds. Finally the pursuit picked up urgency, led by Bora-Hansgrohe, Tudor and Q36.5 and the breakaway faded with 17 kilometers before the finish line. A group of roughly 30 people arrived together to the last climb. 

Ineos Grenadiers launched a final attack which launched Tulett and only Hirschi could match the pace. The Swiss rider then countered with 1km to go for the victory. 

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