NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: Visma | Lease a Bike suffer defeat in Hungary, Astana dominate in Kazakhstan and Rein Taaramae defends Estonian title
Cycling
Visma | Lease a Bike suffer a defeat in Hungary, Astana Qazaqstan dominate home Nationals and Rein Taaramäe narrowly defends his time trial title in Estonia. Let's review a few more events of the first days of this year's National Championships block.
Hungary
Starting off with the Hungarian Championships, there was only one big favourite and that was Visma | Lease a Bike's Attila Valter - champion in 2023 (and 2019). On the start were another two two-time champions in Polti Kometa's Erik Fetter (2022 and 2021) and Adria Mobil's Barnabás Peák (2020, 2018), in the past pro with CCC, Intermarché and Human Powered Health. Those who expected another masterclass by Valter after last year's victory with nearly two-minute lead couldn't have been more mistaken as it was the 25-year-old Peák to claim the throne by 10 seconds over the 38 kilometers.
| 01 | PEAK Barnabas | Adria Mobil | 44:39 |
| 02 | VALTER Attila | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | + 10 |
| 03 | PELIKAN Janos | - | + 59 |
| 04 | FETTER Erik | Team Polti Kometa | + 01:20 |
| 05 | FILUTAS Viktor | Karcag Cycling | + 02:56 |
| 06 | WERMESER Zsombor | Team MBH Bank Colpack Ballan | + 03:00 |
| 07 | SZALAY Dániel | - | + 03:25 |
| 08 | PUSPOKI Daniel | Green Riders | + 03:58 |
| 09 | DINA Marton | ATT Investments | + 05:28 |
| 10 | HRENKO Norbert | Karcag Cycling | + 06:18 |
| 11 | SOLYMOSI Marton | Karcag Cycling | + 07:43 |
| 12 | SZEKELY Benedek | - | + 10:33 |
Kazakhstan
With failed home Asian Championships in minds, Astana Qazaqstan needed to make a statement at the National Championships. This meant leaving all competition in the dust. And that's exactly what the World Tour formation did, occupying top 5 of the result sheet. The title went to the most experienced of the squad: 38 years old Dmitriy Gruzdev. For Gruzdev, who was 6th in the discipline at 2012 World Championships, it's his fourth chrono title. In addition to that, the rider of the Astana Qazaqstan Development Team Andrey Remkhe took the U23 title.
| 01 | GRUZDEV Dmitriy | Astana Qazaqstan Team | 42:33 |
| 02 | CHZHAN Igor | Astana Qazaqstan Team | + 11 |
| 03 | BRUSSENSKIY Gleb | Astana Qazaqstan Team | + 11 |
| 04 | KUZMIN Anton | Astana Qazaqstan Team | + 01:03 |
| 05 | VINOKUROV Nicolas | Astana Qazaqstan Team | + 01:22 |
| 06 | ZHUMAKAN Alisher | Almaty Astana Motors | + 01:24 |
| 07 | MARUKHIN Daniil | Astana Qazaqstan Team | + 02:22 |
| 08 | PRONSKIY Daniil | Vino SKO Team | + 03:23 |
| 09 | SHTEIN Iogan | Vino SKO Team | + 04:08 |
| 10 | TURAR Assylkhan | Almaty Astana Motors | + 05:00 |
| 11 | LUCHSHENKO Sergey | - | + 05:10 |
| 12 | AZEN Gabiden | - | + 07:47 |
| 13 | KARMAZHAKOV Sergey | - | + 08:03 |
| 14 | ZHIZHIN Fedor | - | + 11:44 |
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Estonia
On Tuesday, another experienced WorldTour matador Rein Taaramae entered the Estonian Championships with three back-to-back domestic titles. Thus considered a big pre-race favourite over the 30 km time trial. His biggest competitor turned out to be Norman Vahtra (Van Rysel-Roubaix), a man with WorldTour experience from Israel - Premier Tech. The two shared same times on each split. In the end, it was Taaramae who had a little bit more left in the tank, and massively supported by his wife Hannah in the teamcar, he defeated Vahtra by 5 seconds.
| 01 | TAARAMÄE Rein | Intermarché-Wanty | 35:41 |
| 02 | VAHTRA Norman | Van Rysel-Roubaix | + 05 |
| 03 | KANNIMÄE Taavi | Hawaii Express | + 18 |
| 04 | NISU Oskar | Ferei Quick-Panda Podium Mongolia | + 38 |
| 05 | RAGILO Frank Aron | Dev. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | + 45 |
| 06 | KARPENKO Gleb | Ferei Quick-Panda Podium Mongolia | + 01:27 |
| 07 | BAUER Mikk | CC Villeneuve Saint-Germain | + 01:59 |
| 08 | ÄRM Rait | Van Rysel-Roubaix | + 02:05 |
| 09 | KÜÜT Oskar | Voltas-Tartu 2024 by CCN | + 03:16 |
| 10 | KARLEP Georg | Rein Taaramäe Rattaklubi | + 03:18 |
| 11 | SAUL Evar | Levante Fuji Shizuoka | + 03:20 |
| 12 | LENZIUS Martti | Voltas-Tartu 2024 by CCN | + 03:33 |
| 13 | VEEVO Rait | Peloton | + 03:53 |
| 14 | MÄRTSON Märt | Hawaii Express | + 04:01 |
| 15 | MIKK Margus | - | + 05:05 |
| 16 | LEIDT Markus | Peloton | + 05:39 |
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- So?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- People see what they want to. I am actually the opposite of your accusation, probably more of a rebel than most of you who don’t get the big picture. The difference is, I don’t go moaning publicly about the consequences of my transgressions, I understand the need for rules and I take my OWN responsibility when deciding to ignore or break them or doing so involuntarily. I will also not hesitate to state my case or argue vehemently when relevant, sometimes it works, sometimes it makes things worse but that’s the price to pay for principles and having character.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And we, what are we doing?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And yet, it attracts people, even you. What’s more, it attracts the rival fanboys to fill cyberspace with endless pointless my hero is better than your hero blabla that’s all been heard before and only helps sell the site as an advertising platform. You know what the solution is but most can’t resist. No different than women who follow and discuss celebs through gossip magazines.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- he is doing 460 watts for 35 min to achieve 7 w/kg with VO2 at 96 , just unreal numbers.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just do it, and put up with the consequencesJumpyjohn08-11-2026
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Rein Taaramäe’s wife Hanna encourages her husband to become Estonia champion 🇪🇪😍 Result: Victory by 5 seconds 🥇
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