The third day of the Tour de Hongrie opened with beautiful sunshine at the foot of the Kaposvár Aréna, but ominous storm clouds quickly transformed the 152 kilometer route into a theater of misery. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) ultimate powered through a torrential downpour in Szekszárd to claim his second stage victory of the week and snatch back the overall lead. For our squad, the stage was a complete emotional roller coaster. The drama began before the flag even dropped when János Pelikán suffered a broken spoke, followed immediately by an electronic derailleur battery failure. Forced onto an uncomfortable spare bike of a completely different model, his breakaway ambitions evaporated. Sensing the shifting dynamics, our tactical staff quickly redirected the plan toward Erik Fetter, who executed the pivot brilliantly by forcing his way into the elite 5 man move of the day.
Fetter rode like a man possessed in the early phases, sweeping up maximum bonus seconds by winning the first two intermediate sprints and conquering the categorized climb at Gödre. A subsequent 2nd place on the Zobákpuszta climb put Erik in the virtual lead of the mountains classification. However, as the sky turned pitch black and the rain hammered down, cooperation in the breakaway shattered. WorldTour veteran Bauke Mollema launched a series of stinging attacks that forced Erik to expend crucial energy. The break was swallowed 15 kilometers from the line, just as brutal crosswinds tore the peloton apart. Both Erik and János found themselves trapped in a trailing split, fighting the elements but ultimately crossing the line 1 minute and 24 seconds behind the front group. The time gap meant the white jersey shifted to Attila Valter, while the red jersey narrowly eluded Erik on a tiebreaker. Despite a heartbreaking afternoon for the staff following the live feed, the morale remains high. Stage 4 brings the Queen Stage from Mohács to Pécs, featuring a brutal 2 kilometer climb tackled multiple times, a terrain tailored perfectly for our climbing specialists Tomáš Přidal and Máté Endrédi.
Márkó’s honest reality check
“I think I can speak on behalf of the whole team when I say that today was quite a difficult day for us. It started with Jani being unable to make the breakaway due to a technical problem, he broke a spoke, and so Erik had to go, who managed to get away just in time. He secured the seconds, won the sprints to keep his white jersey. We caught them with the peloton 15 kilometers before the end. The exact same thing happened as yesterday: the peloton caught up, a split immediately formed in the wind, and Erik couldn’t sustain it anymore, so the white jersey slipped away. He has mountain points, maybe we can still do something with that later. Today didn’t end too well, but we move on, there are still two stages left, we will try tomorrow and the day after too, so we are keeping positive.”
📷Photo: Marcell Lippai
