After five days of racing and two stage wins, Thibau Nys becomes the winner of Tour de Hongrie 2024
How it happened
For the first time in his professional career, Thibau Nys found himself in the position to defend a race lead (14 seconds) on the final day of racing. The 173km route from Siófok to Pécs lended itself to aggressive racing, and comprised three ascents of the steep climb in Pécs, where the race would be decided. Pressure was applied on Nys’ young shoulders at each climb, though with support from his Lidl-Trek teammates, the Belgian was able to neutralize all threats ahead of the final test.
Heading into the final five kilometers, the Lidl-Trek train (Felline, Tesfazion, Vacek) positioned the race leader at the head of affairs. Just like the previous two stages, won by Nys, he followed the reliable wheel of Czech champion Mathias Vacek, who had shown his own excellent condition throughout the race. Hirschi (UAE) and then Buchmann applied considerable pressure, but Nys remained glued to his wheel as the road pitched upwards.
Buchmann’s gave one last roll of the dice which put some distance between himself and Nys, who was forced to bring him back to protect his lead. As it came down to a four-man sprint, Poels (Bahrain Victorious) came over the top to take the stage, as an exhausted, but elated, Nys crossed the line in fourth, knowing he had secured the overall win.
The winner’s word
“It was a super hard final, I had a really good feeling from the beginning of the race already. I felt pretty strong. On the first time Pécs was really hard and I started to suffer more than I predicted, but then the second time was already better and I felt that I recovered really good from the climb and the efforts. In the end I’m actually disappointed I didn’t win a third stage, but I was a bit too much with my head looking to the GC and I didn’t want to leave any gaps, and that’s where I think I lost the stage today, but the GC was more important. I’m super happy, it’s been an incredible week.”
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