Tour of Hungary 2023 – Stage 5 [CANCELLED STAGE]

May 14, 2023

Tour of Hungary 2023 – Stage 5 – Budapest – Budapest : 150 km

With its first edition taking place way back in 1925, the Tour de Hongrie is one of the oldest stage races on the international cycling calendar. Despite being one of the oldest, the Tour de Hongrie has only held 43 editions throughout its 96-year history, largely due to the political changes that occurred in the country following the end of the Second World War. The race did return for a short period in the 1990s and 2000s after a 30-year-long hiatus, but it wasn’t until 2015 that it really established itself on the calendar and adopted the format that we’ve come to know today. The five-day stage race is Hungary’s highest ranked race on the UCI’s racing calendar, with the race being upgraded to a ProSeries event for 2023. The race’s new status has attracted the attention of some of the sport’s biggest teams, with no fewer than nine WorldTour teams set to be in attendance at this year’s race.

Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) was declared the overall winner of the Tour de Hongrie after the final stage was cancelled on account of adverse weather conditions in Budapest. Rather than race the 150 kilometre circuit, riders instead will complete eight neutralised laps of a 9.5km circuit “for the fans.”

In a Tweet(opens in new tab) published briefly before the scheduled start time, the organisers stated, “There will be no intermediate sprints, no points, no stage winner. The riders will do 8 laps around the circuit for the fans. GC stays the same as yesterday. The stage starts at 12:00 CET.

“After ongoing discussions with the teams, due to the weather conditions and the slippery track that comes with it, the 5th Stage of Tour de Hongrie is neutralized!”

The neutralisation meant that the general classification standings remain as they were after stage 4 on Saturday, where Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling) surprised with a summit stage win.

Despite attacks from other general classification favourites, Hirschi held onto his general classification lead on the stage, and so won the overall competition 10 seconds ahead of Ben Tulett (Ineos Grenadiers) in second place.

Voisard’s admirable stage 4 effort was enough to put him on the podium in third place, three seconds behind Tulett.

Sebastian Schönberger (Human Powered Health) took the mountains classification jersey after netting points on the summits of Két-Bükkfa and Pilisszanto on the mountainous terrain of stage 4, while Matúš Štoček (ATT Investments) took the points jersey just ahead of overall winner Hirschi.

Results :

Final General Classification :