Tour de Hongrie stage 2: Mark Cavendish claims second sprint victory of the season

Mark Cavendish won in style on stage 2 of the Tour of Hungary after a near-flawless leadout by his Astana Qazaqstan team, getting the better of Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) on the line.

Stage 1 winner Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgrohe) was caught out in the technical finale as the Manxman recorded his second win of the year on his 100th race day with Astana, bouncing back after an illness-hit few months.

Jon Aberasturi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was third in Kazincbarcika. Welsford appeared to lock up in the final kilometre as the peloton navigated a complicated approach to the line, but Cavendish’s leadout of Gleb Syritsa, Cees Bol and Michael Mørkøv were perfectly positioned around the final corner to deliver him to a 164th career victory.

“I’m really happy. Really, really happy with that. Yesterday we didn’t quite hit the lead-out properly – it was super good, everyone committed 100%, we were just a bit eager a bit too soon so we talked to rectify that today,” Cavendish said at the finish. “It was a completely different finish today, no big boulevard, corners to make it technical, and we executed it exactly how we wanted to do.

“We had [Yevgeniy] Gidich looking after us all day so we didn’t take any wind, he did the same yesterday; Michele Gazzoli on the climb, ‘Big Gleb’ Syritsa keeping us completely sheltered – I had it so easy into the last kilometres. Cees and Mørkøv into the last kilometre used the other teams, then used the speed we had to get us as close as we can to the line because it was quite a bit uphill. We wanted to get close, it was always going to be a shorter sprint than normal.

"We nailed it, I’m so happy, coming here after a good training block with the team, a few who'll be going for the Tour de France – it’s very good, I’m very happy,” Cavendish concluded.

After his sixth-placed finish on stage 1, Cavendish’s rivals knew his lead-out train was the one to latch onto, and the final kilometre and a half of this stage saw riders jostling for position on his wheel.

But ultimately despite Groenewegen’s strong position in the final few hundred metres Cavendish had too much power and won by a bike length – enough time to raise his arms in celebration crossing the line.

The result moves Cavendish up to second in the general classification with three stages to race, five seconds behind new yellow jersey Martin Voltr (Pierre Baguette).

Groenewegen initially moved up to third overall, a further four seconds behind Cavendish, but was docked a 10 second penalty by the UCI for obstructing Welsford. The Australian, who nearly crashed into the barriers in the lead-up to the sprint, was granted the same time as the winner and replaces Groenewegen in third on GC.

That reshuffle puts Groenewegen 96th overall and is the second punishment for dangerous sprinting in as many days, after Emīls Liepinš was relegated to last place on stage 1 for causing a pile-up in the finale.