After missing the win on the first two sprint stages, Lidl-Trek claimed victory in the third stage of the Tour de Hongrie. A team effort was needed to pull of the win, with Otto Vergaerde, Jacopo Mosca and Fabio Felline doing the early portion of the work, keeping Mathias Vacek and Thibau Nys well positioned and out of trouble throughout the stage. As the final ascent to the finish in Gyöngyös-Kékestető loomed, Natnael Tesfazion took over the workload as the peloton was whittled down. An attack by Emanuel Buchmann (Bora) forced a reaction from the peloton as Vacek moved to the front to reel in Buchmann. As the German champion began to tire, Vacek cut into his advantage, enough so that Nys could jump over the top of Diego Ulissi (UAE) and zip past Buchmann 50 meters from the line before raising his hands in victory. The young Belgian moves into the lead of the General Classification with two stages to go – both featuring punchy uphill finishes.
Reaction from Thibau Nys:
“It’s incredible, I came here for the stage of tomorrow and the last day. 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.”
Stage 3 Results
1 54 NYS Thibau Lidl – Trek
2 31 ULISSI Diego UAE Team Emirates
3 58 BUCHMANN Emanuel BORA – hansgrohe
GC
1 NYS Thibau Lidl – Trek 5 10″ 12:09:41
2 ULISSI Diego UAE Team Emirates 6″ 0:04
3 BUCHMANN Emanuel BORA – hansgrohe 4″ 0:06
