NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: Visma | Lease a Bike suffer defeat in Hungary, Astana dominate in Kazakhstan and Rein Taaramae defends Estonian title

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.

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.

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.

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.