Diego Pablo Sevilla shoots in the escape and Márton Dina arrives at the Kékestetö with his options intact
43º Tour de Hongrie
Stage 4: Sárospatak – Kazincbarcika (180 km)
A new day with resolution to the sprint, a new day saved without incident or crash in the face of this Wednesday’s end in the Kékestetö. And another day of protagonism in the race. The fourth stage of the Tour de Hongrie had a similar development to the previous ones, with a pulse between a breakaway and a squad controlled by the formations with sprinters and eagerly interested in the sprint. In the breakaway, the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team was once again present. And once again, some tactical touches in charge of the Foundation’s continental formation.
In the fourth stage, which was carried out at a high and lively pace, the fugue formation was not easy. It took time to consolidate. Finally, the Spaniard Diego Pablo Sevilla managed to form a quintet with the Australian Chris Harper (Jumbo-Visma), the Colombian Alejandro Osorio (Caja Rural) and the Hungarians János Pelikán (Androni Giocattoli) and Balázs Rózsa (Team Novak). The five would never run with more than three and a half minutes of margin and would end up losing members, but they were able to face the first lap of the circuit in the lead. After the finish line, Harper stood out.
The breakaway, its last exponent, was definitively neutralized within the last fifteen kilometres, in a climb to Tardona where the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team tried to break the pack with Riccardo Verza and Giacomo Garavaglia. Once they had passed the finish line, the teams with sprinters worked hard to prepare a finish line in which the Italian Jakub Mareczko won the race for the third time.
Márton Dina, the trump card for the overall team, managed to get in front (19th) and save a fall that cut the bunch within the last mile; the Hungarian arrives with his options intact for this Wednesday’s stage, with a final at Kékestetö. The stage reigns supreme, with 188 kilometres of route and three scoring points on the course, to define the overall final.
“Another stage in which he went off at a thousand miles an hour. Of course, here you can’t say that the breaks are a gift: it has cost a lot to consolidate it! It took almost an hour to get it done. And then all day long we gave our best to keep her alive, because the pack didn’t leave us much room either. We have spent a lot. Personally, the day leaves me happy for having been there, fighting and trying. And on a group level I’m very satisfied because the team is facing the stage with all of Márton’s options intact,” concludes a Seville that suffered a small crash in the descent of the last pass through Tardona. “Nothing serious, I’m perfectly fine”. The bonuses have allowed him to climb provisionally to eighth place in a general classification in which Arturo Grávalos remains fifteenth.
Márton Dina, seventeenth overall, 12 seconds behind the leader: “The objective was to save every day without problems and it has been possible to achieve this. Now comes the hardest stage of this edition, very demanding, with more than 3,200 metres of unevenness. One of the hardest that can be designed in our country. The team is very good, they have done an impressive job every day, and I am looking forward to this stage. Last year’s second place is an incentive, but also a responsibility. Let’s see what the road and the rivals say next”.
? Vanik Zoltan / Mario Pertorini / Tour de Hongrie
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
