The 111.6-kilometre stage, starting from Nyíregyháza, featured two major and three minor laps in the Ibrány area, with three intermediate sprint.

After the sharp start, there were constant attempts, Gergely Erdős (Hungarian national team) was the first to breakaway, but as he approached the sprint, the peloton caught up with him. The same choreography was followed in the rest of the stage, with Filippo Omati (Italy) before the second sprint and Aaron Aus (Estonia) before the third, but these attempts did not go further than a minute.

In order, Ramzan Yilmaz (Turkey), yellow jersey wearer Dominik Ratajczak (Poland) and Gabriele Bessega (Italy) won the intermediate sprint, the latter with a line of ten riders trying to get away on the small lap, but this attempt was unsuccessful.

In the end, as expected, it was a bunch sprint, won by Karl Kurits (Estonia) ahead of Matteo De Monte (Italy) and Natan Gregorcic (Slovenia).

“We’ve had a very fast and exciting stage. Our team did a great job all the way through and we tried to lead the peloton accordingly, which we finally did, and I was able to take a confident victory. I liked the course and I’m happy with the organisation. Of course I would like to win the final stage as well,” said Kurits after crossing the finish line.

The best Hungarian was Milán Radics (MKB Cycling Team) who finished in eleventh place.

Polish Dominik Ratajczak, the winner of the prologue, is still leading the overall, seven seconds ahead of Slovenian Natan Gregorcic, who moved up to second place. In the points’ race, Italy’s Gabriele Bessega, the stage winner Kurits in the youth special, and the Hungarian national team’s Márkó Tóth are the leaders.

“I’m definitely disappointed, I would have liked to have achieved a much better result. We tried to make up for it in the first intermediate sprint, but I only managed to finish fifth in the sprint. Later on I crashed, I don’t really know how, but luckily I didn’t really hurt myself. I’m happy that I managed to keep the jersey and I hope that I can achieve a better result in the last stage” – said Márkó Tóth, the owner of the distinctive jersey for the best Hungarian, after the stage.

Results
Stage 1, Nyíregyháza-Ibrány (111.6 km)

1. Karl Kurits (Estonia) 2:34:48

2. Matteo De Monte (Italy) a.i

3. Natan Gregorcic (Slovenia) a.i

4. Simon Gottstein (Slovakia) a.i

5. Mihnea-Alexandru Harasim (Romania) a.i

6. Zak Erzen (Slovenia) a.i

7. Pawel Wieczkowski (Poland) a.i

8. Juraj Vrbik (Slovakia) a.i

9. Hubert Grygowski (Poland) a.i

10. Antoni Kida (Poland) a.i

11. Milán Radics (Hungarian, MKB Cycling Team) a.i

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16. Tóth Márkó (Hungary) a.i

Overall:

1. Dominik Ratajczak (Poland) 2:39:10

2. Natan Gregorcic (Slovenia) + 7 sec

3. Hubert Grygowski (Poland) + 8 sec

4. Karl Kurits (Estonia) + 9 sec

5. Jakob Purtscheller (Austria) + 11 sec

6. Boas Lysgaard (Denmark) + 12 sec

7. Mihajlo Stolic (Serbia) + 12 sec

8. Gabriele Bessega (Italy) + 14 sec

9. Kilian Kummerer (Austria) + 14 sec

10. Mihnea-Alexandru Harasim (Romania) + 14 sec

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14. Tóth Márkó (Hungary) + 19 sec

The One Belt One Road Nations’ Cup Hungary cycling race will finish on 19 August with a 117.4 km stage between Vásárosnamény and Nyíregyháza.