Photo Credit: Cor Vos

It was a hilly start to today’s third stage at the Tour de Hongrie which saw an aggressive opening 20 kilometres of action before a five rider group broke clear, with all Team DSM riders in the bunch. Those out front worked well together, building up an advantage of almost four minutes but the peloton were always in control. As the kilometres ticked by they ate into the gap, with Kevin Vermaerke riding strongly and contributing to the pace setting at the front for the team.

Heading into the finale the catch was made at ten kilometres to go, setting up the expected sprint finale. The fight for position was intense and the team did well to maintain a good position at the front of the peloton as things became more chaotic, looking to protect Alberto Dainese. Unfortunately, it was a crash marred finale and a big crash in the peloton at around one and a half kilometres to go saw Dainese and the rest of the team held up and unable to contest for a result at the finish.

“I think it went pretty good today, apart from the end,” explained road captain Asbjørn Kragh Andersen. “Kevin and Romain did well to control things in the beginning and only a small breakaway got clear. Kevin then started to help in the chase alongside Bora and he was really strong and did a good job there. Towards the final we stuck together well and kept to our plan. Then we just had some bad luck as there was a big crash in front of us with one and a half kilometres to go and our chances were gone. In general, it was a good day and we’ll try again the next time and I still believe the victory is just around the corner for us.”

Team DSM coach Luke Roberts added: “We hoped to set up a sprint for Alberto today. It was a relatively easily controllable group and we had Kevin ride on the front during the day to make sure we could set up that bunch sprint, and he did well there. It was a bit of a hectic final and the guys did a pretty good job of getting into position for the final few kilometres. There was a fast downhill corner where some guys took some risks, unfortunately just in front of Alberto’s position, where it caused a big crash in the bunch. It basically held up the rest of the peloton and unfortunately for us we didn’t get the chance to go for the sprint today. The guys showed good commitment today and it’s a shame the stage ended in that way.”