Tour de Hongrie: Thibau Nys grabs glory on final climb for stage 3 win and GC lead

SALVANLES MARECOTTES SWITZERLAND APRIL 25 Thibau Nys of Belgium and Team Lidl Trek celebrates at finish line as stage winner during the 77th Tour De Romandie 2024 Stage 2 a 171km stage from Fribourg to SalvanLes Marecottes 1059m UCIWT on April 25 2024 in SalvanLes Marecottes Switzerland Photo by Luc ClaessenGetty Images
Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) (Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)

Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) scored his second mountain-top finish victory in a month as he caught and passed Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the dying metres of stage 4 at the Tour de Hongrie to win at Gyöngyös-Kékestető.

The German Champion had looked set for glory after attacking just outside the flamme rouge on the 12km closing climb, but Nys sped past in the dying metres to take the win as Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) came through for second ahead of Buchmann.

"It's incredible, I came here for the stage of tomorrow and the last day," Nys said after his win. "Today we just wanted to test the legs and see where we can end. I didn't really know how to react after the first two easy stages, I felt the legs were a bit lazy, but the team did a hell of a job, and Mathias was unbelievably strong. In the end, I found the perfect legs to make it happen.

"I had to be patient. The last 500 meters kicked really steep so I just knew I had to save something for one big shot in the end. It looked like we were not closing in on Buchmann, but then in the end I went all out and we came fast from behind, then I knew it was going to happen."

The GC battle expected to unfold on the queen stage of the race only came late on the day’s final climb, which saw riders battle up an average gradient of 5.6% towards the top. It was Bora-Hansgrohe who kicked things off with Ben Zwiehoff making a move 3.3km from the top before Buchmann took to the front soon afterwards.

The 21-year-old, who won stage 2 at last month’s Tour de Romandie, his first road race of the season, sped past in the final 150 metres to deny Buchmann the win, leading home Ulissi as Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) rounded out the top five further back.

The GC moves had come after the early break was brought back midway up the final climb of the day. Astana Qazaqstan riders Michael Mørkøv and Yevgeniy Gidich had been joined in the break by Manuel Pénalver (Polti-Kometa), Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders-Baloise), Balázs Rózsa (Epronex-Hungary), and Christian Bagatin (MBH Bank-Colpack-Ballan).

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Dani Ostanek
Senior News Writer

Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.

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