Another day on the break for Riccardo Verza: “At some point we thought we could make it”

43º Tour de Hongrie
Stage 3: Karcag-Nyíregyháza (182 km)

As in the Challenge, on the first day of competition of the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team on the island of Mallorca; as in the Vuelta a Murcia, as well as twice in the Vuelta a Burgos, as in so many other days on which he sought to do so without success, the Italian Riccardo Verza once again showed his offensive spirit by managing to ride in the breakaway that led the development of the third stage of this 2020 Tour de Hongrie.

In a breakaway that took some time to form, perhaps due to the very high pace of the march stimulated by a downwind that allowed the car to travel at over 48 km/h in the first hour, Verza ended up leading an adventure with the Dutchman Lennard Hofstede (Jumbo-Visma), the Norwegian Kristian Kulset (Uno-X), the Belgian Emiel Planckaert (Vlaanderen) and the Austrian Maximilian Kuen (Vorarlberg).

The five, with a maximum lead of six minutes, separated within the final fifteen kilometres, when Hofstede made one final charge. The peloton was already running at around 30 seconds. Once the race was grouped together, the outcome was the sprint. The Italian Jakub Mareczko (CCC) scored his second partial success, while the Australian Kaden Groves (Mitchelton-Scott) became the new leader. The riders of the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team saved the finish line without any problems. In the general classification, the Spanish Arturo Grávalos remains in the provisional tenth position. The rider from La Rioja, after his great performance on Tuesday, tried again to be present at the breakaway in the early stages of this third day. Márton Dina also saved the day without a hitch.

“It was a hard day. In the race we went very fast all day. At some point we thought that we could make it in the breakaway, but in the end the pack was on top of us. It was good. We have to try”, explains Riccardo Verza.

The Tour de Hongrie faces its fourth stage this Tuesday. It will be 180 kilometres between the towns of Sárospatak and Kazincbarcika, which in its final part will have two laps of a circuit where we will have to face the Tardona climb and a steep slope, Dedestapolcsany, which will certainly bring uncertainty.

?  Vanik Zoltan / Mario Pertorini / Tour de Hongrie

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)