“We continue to give the team a presence in the race, we are still in the fight”
42º Tour de Hongrie
Stage 2: Balatonfüred – Nagykanizsa (183 km)
The Spaniard Diego Pablo Sevilla was again involved in the great breakaway of the day in the Magyar round, a second stage in which seven riders were involved in an intense battle with the peloton that, as far as the Spaniard was concerned, came to an end with 19 to go. A breakaway with an emotional point. Sevilla was in the breakaway with an old friend, often a training partner and always a rival since he was a child: the ‘caja rural’ Sergio Martín. A beautiful side of this sport that often has long relationships of friendship from the lower categories. On those days of training in the rain or with many climbs in which you share confidences and dreams. And if one day we go in a breakaway, can you imagine? This Thursday, those dreams became a reality.
Sevilla and Martín, rivals, friends, shared adventure with the Danish Alex Kamp, the Hungarian János Pelikán, the Polish Pawel Bernas and Maciej Paterski and the Italian Emanuele Onesti. A breakaway with good sprinters. With 25 kilometres to go, the seven were still working closely together to stay in the lead. A thread of life of barely a minute that was exhausted with a view to the sprint. On the way Sevilla did not hesitate to fight for points for the mountains or to fight for the sum of bonus seconds. Sevilla managed to hold on in the top ten overall, where he is now seventh.
In the final sprint, where the Belgian Jordi Meeus, also the new leader of the race, won, the previous preparations for Luca Pacioni could not materialise after the fall that dislocated a good part of the big group. But today is in the past and tomorrow’s stage is the new opportunity on which all eyes will be focused. There will only be 147 kilometres between Veszprem and Tata. And the tone could be very similar to that of the first two days.
“In the end it was a hard day for me, I felt the efforts of the first day a little bit, but we tried to continue to give presence to the team and continue in the fight before the queen stage arrives. On a small descent I saw that there was a barrage and that six riders were leaving. My team-mates were a bit closed at that moment, so I got out on the side as best I could and caught them at the right moment. I thought it was an interesting breakaway because the leader of the mountains wasn’t there; it was a good opportunity to fight for that jersey. But a team-mate of his got into the breakaway and he was very strong. I didn’t have much spark in the sprints today and I couldn’t even get second place. Sergio Martín beat me in both. It’s always special to share a breakaway with a friend, there are always moments of good vibes, jokes… although he beat me in both sprints”, smiles Diego Pablo Sevilla.
Erik Fetter: “So far I feel good, the feeling is very good and the stages so far have not been too demanding. Only the final part of today was hectic, with a bike change I had to make and several crashes in the peloton”.
[ PhotoGomezSport]
