The main summit finish of this year’s Tour de Hongrie awaited the peloton on Friday afternoon, where Team dsm-firmenich PostNL looked to set-up Frank van den Broek for the finale. Working brilliantly as a unit throughout the day, the team contributed to the pace setting to ensure that the break was brought back, before positioning Van den Broek going onto the climb. On the ascent the team also helped to keep the pace up as things slowed, before some other squads then took over. Coming into the final three kilometres there was a big fight for position as they made a turn onto another road, where the steepest sections began. Unfortunately, at that moment Van den Broek took the outside line and as the peloton squeezed he crashed which caused a mechanical for his bike; and from there any opportunity of going for a stage result was over. Robbe Dhondt, who had been the last rider with Van den Broek supporting him, continued to fight up the ascent and was the team’s first finisher on the day.
A disappointed Van den Broek said: “Turning right into the last steep 3 kilometres I went off the road and lost my front wheel and went down. I had to change bikes after that so my race was over right there. It’s super frustrating as the team did a great job protecting me all day, especially on the last climb and coming into the decisive part, so it is disappointing not to get anything from the day. We will try our best in the next days to keep up the fight here.”