Penultimate stage in Hungary sees Lozano remain in red with all eyes on the last day of racing

01 September 2020

Race: Tour de Hongrie

Start/Finish: Sarospatak – Kazincbarcika

Distance: 171km

David Lozano

“The first hour was super hard today. It was fast and full of attacks, ours included! But it was really important for us to either get in the break or at least, control who was going in the break to make sure that the other riders who are close to me in the mountains classification were not there.”

“We managed to control the situation really well and for the fourth stage in a row the guys did a really great job. Once the small break went up the road we could settle down and work towards setting up Charles Planet up for the finish.

“It was actually a chaotic finale and we brought Charles up to the front with no problems and then for the second day running there were crashes late on and it totally disrupted our finish. None of our guys went down, but we didn’t get chance to execute our initial plan.

“It all falls on tomorrow’s last stage for us. All or nothing. I have to get in the breakaway to protect and win the mountains jersey and we will give it our all to make that happen and bring the jersey home.”

Massimo Podenzana

“Yes, the man objective today was to control the situation with the breakaway to make sure that the red jersey was still on David’s shoulders going into the final stage and we achieved that with some good work from the whole team in the beginning.”

“The second objective was to try and get a good stage result and with today’s lumpy finishing circuits suiting a puncheur, we wanted to go with Charles and give him every opportunity to have a go in the final.

“Unfortunately, there were two crashes in the last couple of kilometers and Charles got held up and had to fight hard to get back into the front group and by then it was too late. Our focus is now on resting well tonight and giving everything to support David tomorrow and win that red jersey.”