Van Poppel doesn’t see Welsford on his wheel in opening stage Tour of Hungary and sprints to victory himself

The 46th edition of the Tour of Hungary started on Wednesday while many eyes were still focused on the fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia in the capital, Budapest. From there, we headed west to the finish in Györ, where the finish line was marked after 210.3 kilometers. The stage included two climbs, but these did not cause the riders any concern. As a result, the first leader's jersey in the Hungarian stage race was expected to go to a sprinter.

After about 20 kilometers, Siebe Deweirdt (Team Flanders-Baloise) and Matteo Ambrosini (MBH Bank Ballan CSB) broke away. Not much later, Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwel Sauzen-Cibel Clementines) and local rider János Pelikán (Team United Shipping) joined them, giving us four leaders. The peloton was fine with that, allowing the early breakaway to build up a maximum lead of two minutes.

In the peloton, Jayco AlUla took the lead. The Australian team had one of the favorites in its ranks with Groenewegen and had a great sprint train for the Dutch champion. As a result, the leaders remained within reach all day, and it turned out to be a fairly boring stage, as we often see in sprinters' races.

The breakaway riders did not get very far ahead as the peloton slowly but surely closed the gap. At the front, Deweirdt came out on top on the second and final categorized climb with a strong sprint, securing the mountain jersey for the Belgian rider on day two. After that climb, it was virtually flat to the finish, allowing the peloton – including the sprint trains – to get going.

Yet it took a long time before the last breakaway riders were caught. Ambrosini pulled away hard with 15 kilometers to go, leaving only Deweirdt to follow the Italian. With 9 kilometers to go, the nervous peloton really got going and closed in on the two leaders. With just over five kilometers to go, it was all over for the courageous duo. After we saw Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe's classification rider, Fredrik Wandahl, crash, the preparations for the sprint got into full swing.

Flanders Baloise was the first to make a move, pushing hard early on and breaking up the peloton. After that, the Bahrain Victorious riders took the lead, with Groenewegen well positioned behind his teammates. Lead-out Van Poppel was the first to enter the final straight, but his sprinter Welsford was no longer on his wheel. The Dutchman then went for it himself and won the first stage. Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek) finished second, ahead of Groenewegen, who came third.