Stage 2: Veszprém – Siófok, 178 km
The team did a great job today: another breakaway, almost yellow jersey, and a top 10.
Business as usual! János Pelikán was in the breakaway again, this time with his TUS teammate Michal Schuran. They were joined by Deweirdt, Cretti, and Balázs Rózsa.
The breakaway had a maximum advantage of two minutes, offering little realistic chance of success. Michal Schuran finished third in the first KOM and second in the second KOM climb. Later, the two intermediate sprints provided excitement, offering bonus seconds. János Pelikán won both, gaining six extra seconds. Therefore, before the final sprint, János virtually led the Tour de Hongrie!
However, the stage 1 winner, Danny van Poppel, also won today. So, despite János’s great performance, the yellow jersey remained with the Dutchman. Furthermore, we had success in the sprint: Mihajlo Stolić finished in an impressive ninth place.
Erik Fetter before tomorrow’s Kékestető:
“Today the breakaway was formed relatively quickly, and Schuran was among them, but (Pelikán) Jani wasn’t there and it wasn’t the best possible scenario for us. That’s why we waited a bit until the road was blocked by the peloton, and then Jani attacked. We raced phenomenally! Especially today, when two of us were in front, and then when we pushed for Mihajlo in the end. It was just bad luck that we didn’t get the yellow jersey. (…) I know the bunch, it’s different to race at this level, but I would say it’s easier because it’s much more predictable. I’m trying to pass my experience to the guys, I’m trying to tell them where to position themselves in the peloton. (…) The legs are good, the feelings are good, I’m ready for tomorrow! We’ll see if I or (Feldhoffer) Bálint will be in better shape, but we’ll try to stay with the best.”
Michal Schuran after a heroic day
“I wanted to go for the breakaway because I was thinking a lot about the KOM jersey in the last months. I thought it would be a great goal for me to have this jersey in front of the Hungarian fans. Yesterday, it didn’t go as we expected because I wanted to be in the breakaway with Jani. Today for the first try we succeeded. (…) In the breakaway it is much easier to survive the echelons; sometimes actually the wind helped us.
At the first KOM I made a mistake; I was focusing too much on the others and not on the sprint. The second one was better but still one of the guys was too strong and outsprinted me by a little. From that moment I knew that the KOM jersey was gone, because from now there won’t be so many opportunities to gain points but at least I tried my best. From that point I just wanted to push as much as possible to hit the intermediate sprints before the peloton for János (Pelikán) because there was still a possibility for him to take yellow.”
📷Photos: Jakab Rokob