The Belgian was one of the main protagonists Saturday afternoon at the Tour of Hungary.
Racing for the first time since bringing down the curtain over his Classics campaign at Paris-Roubaix, Yves Lampaert traded the comfort of staying in the peloton with an entire day in the break, and he decided to do that on the hardest stage of the Tour of Hungary.
The former Belgian Champion was among the first to attack, and his effort in the opening kilometers of stage four helped a breakaway to form as the peloton left Martonvasar behind. The group of six worked well together and managed to forge out a maximum gap of four minutes, which the peloton hard a hard time bringing it down. Yves put in a phenomenal effort on the route to Dobogoko, which comprised numerous climbs, of which just four were classified, and remained in the lead all the way until one kilometer to go, when the numerous accelerations from behind put an end to his adventure.
Maybe even more remarkable than the five hours he spent in the breakaway was that Yves still had enough to finish just 16 seconds down on winner Yannis Voissard (Tudor Pro Cycling), a result that elevated him twelve places on the overall standings, where Fausto Masnada remains out top ranked rider with one stage left.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images