We reached our goal on the last stage: GC top 10 and the white jersey in the pocket.
An Etyek-Esztergom stage was held on the final day of the 100th Tour de Hongrie. Of course, Team United Shipping was represented in the breakaway today as well. This time, Zétény Szijártó attacked. At one point the breakaway advantage was 5 minutes.
In the Pilis, the bunch was controlled by XDS-Astana, but the Kazakh team’s pace was disrupted by Erik Fetter once again. The TUS rider attacked in his hometown, at Pilisvörösvár and remained ahead of the peloton, maintaining his lead for a long time. However, the headwind did not help him and he was caught before the Esztergom circuit.
The bunch turned nervously onto the partly cobblestoned Esztergom circuit, but TUS reached its goal. Bálint Feldhoffer retained his seventh place overall and also took the white jersey for the best Hungarian.
Bálint words after the last stage:
“I tried to hide in the bunch to save as much energy as possible. I followed the yellow jersey for most of the day, thinking that if I followed him, I would be safe. The last two laps were quite fast, but I was able to stay in front the whole time. Then on the last climb I couldn’t ride so well, and in the end I was a few seconds behind the others, but fortunately it didn’t matter. I stayed seventh and kept the white jersey, I’m very happy!”
Erik Fetter after his home attack:
“This was our plan even before the stage, although we didn’t expect such a quality breakaway to happen with this big advantage. We basically expected to catch the breakaway before the circuit at Pilis, but in the end this route wasn’t so selective. Unfortunately, a very, very strong headwind blew in and the breakaway were too far away for me to jump on them. In Vörösvár I still believed that this could be a good attack, they were only a minute away from me then. Then, coming out of Vörösvár, the pace was high, and the wind didn’t help, so I knew that I wouldn’t be able to make up the one minute.”
đź“·Photos: Jakab Rokob