Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) shot to the stage 1 victory at the Tour de Hongrie, coming out on top in the bunch sprint that concluded the 210km opening stage in Gyor.
The Dutchman beat Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) to the line at the end of a largely flat day, which started in Budapest and traversed two third-category climbs before the finish.
Van Poppel had been set to lead out Red Bull’s main sprinter Sam Welsford, but, having dived into the final bend in prime position at the front of the peloton, he stole a march on his sprint competitors.
The 31-year-old took advantage of his positioning heading into the finishing straight, holding off neo-pro Teutenberg and fellow Dutchman Groenewegen to convert it into his first win of the 2024 season.
Earlier in the day, Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders-Baloise) had led the day’s four-man breakaway over the two hills at Etyek and Pannonhalma, scoring 10 mountain classification points to take the lead in that classification.
The break wouldn’t last to the finish, however, with Red Bull and Jayco among the teams working hard to bring back final holdouts Deweirdt and Matteo Ambrosini (MBH Bank-Ballan-CSB) 5km from the line before setting up the big sprint finale.
Results
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