UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad announced for centenary Tour de Hongrie

One hundred years after the inaugural edition in 1925, the Tour de Hongrie, or Tour of Hungary, will begin on Wednesday in the capital city of Budapest. Just like that very first edition, stage 1 of this year’s race will begin from St. Gellért Square by the River Danube, only this time the riders won’t see the flag drop at 4am in the morning.

At a more reasonable hour this time around, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will return to the race won by the Emirati squad in 2023. Marc Hirschi won both a stage and the overall that year, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG will have plenty of options to attack across the five days once more.

Alessandro Covi will start the Tour de Hongrie having won a stage in each of his last two stage races, with a win apiece in the Giro d’Abruzzo and the Vuelta Asturias. The Italian had gone almost three years without a victory prior to this season, but the man known as the Puma di Taino has found the knack in recent weeks, making him a man to watch in Hungary.

The 26-year-old will be joined in the five-day stage race by two more riders who impressed at the Giro d’Abruzzo, Ivo Oliveira and Pablo Torres. The Portuguese Oliveira won two stages in Italy before coming a close second in the opening prologue of the Tour de Romandie, where both he and Torres helped João Almeida to the overall win.

Their tilt at the Tour de Hongrie will be aided by the presence of Ivo’s twin brother, Rui Oliveira. The 28-year-old was in the team that won this race two seasons ago.

Elsewhere, the Emirati squad will have an ideal candidate for any sprinting opportunities in Sebastián Molano, an experienced rider who took out the Classic Brugge-De Panne in style earlier this year. He and his teammates’ years of wisdom will be a gold mine to Gen Z rider Mohammad Almutaiwei, who will be making his first appearance of the season for the WorldTour squad. Almutaiwei, 21 years of age and hailing from the United Arab Emirates, holds both the road race and time trial national championships for Under-23s.

As for the route itself, the Tour de Hongrie have pulled out all the stops for the centenary edition, with stage 1 challenging the peloton with the longest day of racing since 2008. At 210.4km in length, the opening day will see the riders climb a pair of category 3 ascents before heading to Győr, where the more versatile sprinters should contest the day’s honours.

Stages 2 and 4 should also suit bunch finishes, with neither day packing in over 2,000m of climbing. Instead, stage 2 will have Lake Balaton as its picturesque centrepiece, before a three-lap finishing circuit needs to be negotiated in Székesfehérvár on the penultimate day.

It is likely that the general classification will be decided on stages 3 and 5, with the former being billed as the Queen stage by the organisers. Beginning on the outskirts of Budapest, stage 3 will take the riders to the highest point of Hungary for a summit finish atop Kékestető. The final 20km of the Queen stage will head uphill, but it is in the steep final 4km where the fireworks should erupt.

With everything to play for on the final day, stage 5 packs 2,163m of climbing into a little under 170km of racing. There will be three ascents of the Pilisszántó climb, preceding a tricky cobbled circuit through the finishing city of Esztergom. It is here where the race will draw to a thrilling close in front of the historic Esztergom Basilica, the largest church in Hungary.

As he gears up for his return to the Tour de Hongrie, Covi spoke of his confidence following recent results and looked ahead to the five days of racing beginning in Budapest.

Covi: “I’m excited for the Tour of Hungary. I have a couple of wins on the board already this season and and the form and confidence are high. I raced here last year for the first time and it’s a beautiful country and place to race a bike in.

“The team is strong, and with Molano also a threat for the sprints, we’ll be aiming for wins.”

The full UAE Team Emirates-XRG lineup for the Tour de Hongrie is as follows:
– Alessandro Covi (Ita)
– Sebastián Molano (Col)
– Ivo Oliveira (Por)
– Rui Oliveira (Por)
– Pablo Torres (Spa)
– Mohammad Almutaiwei (UAE) (Gen Z)