Marc Hirschi overcomes INEOS challenge to take brilliant win on stage 3 of the Tour de Hongrie

Marc Hirschi would not be denied on a very exciting finale to stage 3 of the Tour de Hongrie that saw the UAE Team Emirates rider fight off competition from the likes of Ben Tulett and Egan Bernal.

Stage 3 was expected to be the first big day for the overall classification. Whilst not a serious mountain stage, the day featured a tough final circuit with a 4-kilometre climb at 4.7% to be ridden twice before the finish. The final ascent to Pecs is where the race will be decided however.

Deciding the breakaway was the best bet for the day was a seven-rider group including a pair of Alpecin-Deceuninck riders in Silvan Dillier and Dries De Bondt.

With 50km to go the breakaway began to break up and meanwhile, Fabio Jakobsen began to struggle out the back of the peloton on the fourth categorised climb of the day.

In the peloton, Egan Bernal began to set an infernal pace on the front before teammate Jhonatan Narváez attacked. Only Finn Fisher-Black and Oscar Onley were able to follow the INEOS Grenadiers man.

With the counter-attacking trio reaching the front of the race, they had stretched their lead to over a minute from the peloton.

Doing a lot of work to help pull the leaders back was BORA - hansgrohe's star sprinter Sam Bennett and in truth, he was doing a brilliant job. With around 17km to the finish it was all back together again at the front of the race.

As the race reached the final little kick-up to the line, the battle for position at the front of the peloton was a fierce one.

Bernal again was setting a fierce pace on the climb. This time though, Ben Tulett was the teammate who attacked over the top of him, powering ahead with only Marc Hirschi able to stay in contention with 1400 metres to go.

After such a big effort from Tulett, Hirschi waited for the INEOS man to lose some impetus and counter-attacking to a brilliant stage victory. Behind the UAE Team Emirates rider, Tulett just managed to hold on to claim second.

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