VIDEO. Thibau Nys trumps other top riders in the queen stage of the Tour of Hungary with an impressive attack and grabs the leader’s jersey: “Then I knew I would win”

Thibau Nys (21) won the queen stage in the Tour of Hungary, a five-day stage race for the Pro Series, on Friday. The young rider from Lidl-Trek attacked on the ascending finish line and left the competition behind. For Nys it is his second victory of the road season.

The third stage in Hungary finished on top of Kekesteto, the highest climb in the country. Lidl-Trek set up a train for Nys on that twelve-kilometre-long final climb. The Brabander had already finished second in a mountain stage in Hungary last year, and proved his excellent form a few weeks ago with a win on an uphill finish in the Tour de Romandie, the race where he started his road season.

German champion Emanuel Buchmann emphatically reached for the stage victory with an attack in the last two kilometers of the Kekesteto, but still fell silent in the steep final hectometers. There Nys sprinted impressively over Buchmann. The Italian Diego Ulissi came second, Buchmann himself third. Another Belgian, Harm Vanhoucke, finished sixth at eleven seconds.

In the general classification, 21-year-old Nys has a four-second lead over Ulissi and six over Buchmann. The Tour of Hungary continues until Sunday. The finish will be on top of a slope on both Saturday and Sunday.

Nys’s response

“It is unbelievable. I would mainly focus on tomorrow’s ride and the last day. Today we just wanted to test the legs and see where we could end up. I didn’t really know how to react after the first two easy rides. The legs felt a bit lazy, but the team did a fantastic job,” Nys said afterwards.

Afterwards, Nys mainly complimented teammate Vacek. “Mathias was incredibly strong. And at the end I found the legs to finish it. I had to be patient. The last five hundred meters were very steep, so I knew I had to save something for the final punch. For a while it looked like we wouldn’t be able to catch up with Buchmann again, but I gave it my all and I came back. Then I knew I would win.”