The double-header began with the Visegrad 4 Bicycle Race in Pannonhalma, a relentless 161-kilometer battleground packed with 1468 meters of climbing. Under sunny, clear skies, the squad launched an aggressive offensive from the gun, with the clear tactical goal to flood early moves and set up the final three climbs. The pace was blisteringly fast, with countless breakaway attempts defining the opening kilometers. A sudden railway barrier forced an unexpected halt to the entire race, but immediately upon the restart, the team launched a counter-offensive. A powerful four-man break went clear, driving a three-minute gap that forced ATT Investments and MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort into a desperate, full-gas chase. Despite the searing heat, where some overheating took its toll and ice hand-ups were difficult to execute, the break survived until just 20 kilometers from the line. Although our breakaway rider was easily the strongest in the move and had the potential to take the win, the lack of cooperation in the break ultimately doomed the escape. When the escapees were finally caught, a flurry of counter-attacks split the field. While the eventual winner, Luca Cretti of MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort, broke away to claim the victory, the team showed outstanding depth behind. In the frantic, uphill dash, Erik Fetter sprinted to a superb 5th place, closely followed by Michal Schuran in 9th and János Pelikán in 10th to lock down three riders in the top ten.
The momentum carried straight into the next day at the Visegrad 4 Bicycle Race – GP Slovakia, a shorter but significantly more brutal 139-kilometer route in Nová Baňa featuring 2288 meters of relentless, technical climbing. The tactical blueprint remained unchanged, and the team executed flawlessly from the start, placing both Barnabás Vas and Nikolaos Michail Drakos into an active eight-man breakaway. Drama struck early as Drakos was forced to undergo a bike change before the start due to an unexpected Di2 battery issue, but the squad adapted quickly. The nice, sunny weather eventually turned overcast with the threat of rain as the break was reabsorbed just before the local circuit laps. The final circuits delivered incredibly technical descents and punishingly steep climbs, creating a far stronger and more punishing race than the previous year. Bad luck struck once again when a flat tire took our rider out of a highly competitive position on the final laps. Despite the mechanical setback and heavy legs on the steep gradients, Michal Schuran fought hard near the front on the brutal 15% slopes, clawing his way back to finish as our top rider in 14th place, while Alessandro Verre of MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort claimed the official race win.
Beyond the immediate battle for stage honors, the weekend marked the grand finale of the entire Visegrad 4 series, which previously contested rounds in Poland and Czechia. In a spectacular achievement for the team, János Pelikán secured the overall General Classification victory among all Hungarian riders.
Veljko’s railway intermission
The plan today was to be in the breakaway, and we were all really active. I made it into an early move that eventually got caught, and then we got stopped by a train. Surprise, surprise… because that never happens in Hungarian races, right?
Immediately after that temporary intermission, I attacked again and got into another breakaway with three other riders. One guy was really strong and working well, one was semi-decent, but the last guy was actually slowing us down every time he took a turn at the front.
I started to believe in it a bit when our gap hit three minutes because I was feeling good, but the others just couldn’t help enough to maintain the advantage before we hit the final circuit laps. I had quite an up-and-down day and wasn’t at my absolute best, so I just hope the legs will be good tomorrow.
Erik’s tactical chess move
Overall, I am very satisfied. I suffered a lot all day, I did not feel exceptionally well, I even told the others during the race that I would help them at the end. For the final small laps, we finally caught the breakaway where Veljko represented us all day and raced very well. Until then, we just had to follow wheels in the peloton behind MBH and ATT, since they missed the move.
After the first small lap, a leading group of about 20 riders was formed; here, after the descent, I launched an attack to tire out the opponents’ teams and force them to react. In the end, four of us managed to get away. On the last lap, a very strong chasing group caught up with us from behind, where MBH was present in quite large numbers, so they could fight for the victory. I finally came in 5th from this bunch, and was just a little short of the podium. From the peloton, Jani and Schuri also managed to finish in the top 10, so we are very satisfied, the whole team raced great today.
Michal’s battle against gravity
Today’s final was much harder than yesterday, and I felt like I had empty legs at the end. I’m not completely satisfied because I definitely wanted to be in the top 10 again. Still, my shape has been improving over the last few weeks, so I was glad to finally race with a better feeling.
Near the finish, the tempo on the steep section was just too much for me. I managed to claw my way back to the front on the downhill and flat parts, but a 15% gradient is apparently too much for a 76kg guy! 😄 On that last ascent, my legs felt completely empty and I couldn’t push anymore to chase back, so I was just surviving until the line.
Jani’s road to recovery and European dreams
Du bist gut genug
It was last year’s course that we already knew, three large and three small laps, with around 2200 meters of total elevation, half of which is in the smaller laps, so the end of this is really hard.
Unlike last year, this year a breakaway went away relatively early with Barni and Drakos from us, so from then on we just watched and reacted if something happened.
In the end, we entered the small laps with a full peloton, and from then on everyone went on their own steam, flat out. Similar to last year, I rode my own pace in these last 30 kilometers. People were constantly dropping off the front, and I was catching up to these riders. In the end, I finished third out of a group of 5 to 6 riders, which meant 19th place in the end.
I felt good, and I was happy that for the second day in a row I could kick hard into the pedals and race smartly.
Yes, as has been mentioned many times, I started racing in Serbia after about a month of training, and after that I didn’t really rest because the goal was to get into a reasonable shape for the Tour de Hongrie, which more or less succeeded. With two months of training, it went as well as we saw there. After that, it seems that in those two months, plus in Hongrie, I got quite broken and there was a serious slump in performance and training, maybe I should have taken a bigger rest here because the problems came out before the National Championships when training was really not going well. At the same time, I attribute it to this that now the bike started to move, that by now I managed to rest after that first training block and the TDH.
I feel the lack of proper winter preparation mainly in the fact that I can go pretty well for a day or two, but then the next day I don’t know what state I will be in. Maybe it will be good, maybe not, that’s why I was a bit worried about the Slovakian V4, for example, but maybe now this will be fine too.
Now it seems there will be a longer break in racing, maybe until the end of August, until then, as a main goal, I would like to adjust my time trial position, do some testing, and of course rest a bit besides that.
My main goal for this year is still to be able to start at the European Championships and/or the World Championships at the end of September, and on the time trials of course it would be good to do something good. I haven’t really been sick this year, I hope it stays that way until the EC/WC.
Photo: Marcell Lippai
