Tour de Hongrie
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Date | July |
| Region | Hungary |
| English name | Tour of Hungary |
| Local name(s) | Magyar Körverseny |
| Discipline | Road |
| Competition | Professional |
| Type | Stage race |
| History | |
| First edition | 1925 |
| Editions | 35 (as of 2011) |
| First winner |
 Károly Jerzsabek (HUN) |
| Most wins |
László Vida (HUN) (2) István Liszkai (HUN) (2) Győző Török (HUN) (2) Zoltán Remák (SVK) (2) |
| Most recent |
 Hans Bloks (NED) |
The Tour de Hongrie (English: Tour of Hungary) is a professional road bicycle stage race organized in Hungary since 1925.
History
The inaugural Tour de Hongrie took place on 27 June 1925. The cyclists hit the road as early as four in the morning, and the Budapest-Szombathely-Győr-Budapest stage was accomplished the quickest by Károly Jerzsabek, who managed to cover the distance of 510.5 kilometres in 22 hours and 10 minutes to become the first ever champion of the event.[1]
The race was held until the World War II in every year, except 1928, when Budapest hosted the UCI Road World Championship and 1936, when cyclist were in the middle of the preparation of the Olympic Games. During the World War, the event was held twice on a shortened distance, however, following the political changes in the country it was staged only occasionally. Moreover, between 1964 and 1992 came a near thirty years intermission, when the competition was not held.[2]
After the end of the communism in Hungary, the Tour the Hongrie was organized again by the Hungarian Cycling Federation from 1993, and was held until 2008 with only shorter interruptions. In 2007 the field of the tour left the actual borders of the country for the first time, when the third stage of the race began in Sátoraljaújhely and ended in Košice, Slovakia.[3] Up to the present, the 2008 edition was the last fixture of the event, after that the Hungarian stages have been integrated to another competition, the Central European Tour.[4]
List of champions
| Year | Winner[2] | Year | Winner[2] | Year | Winner[2] |
| 1925 | .svg.png){kind=small} Károly Jerzsabek | 1942 | Ferenc Barvik | 1994 |  Wolfgang Kotzmann |
| 1926 | László Vida | 1943 | István Liszkai | 1995 |  Sergei Ivanov |
| 1927 | László Vida | 1944–1948 | not held | 1996 |  Alexander Tolomanov |
| 1928 | not held | 1949 |  André Labeylie | 1997 | Zoltán Bebtó |
| 1929 |  Oscar Tirbach | 1950–1952 | not held | 1998 | Alexander Rotar |
| 1930 | .svg.png){kind=small} Vasco Bergamaschi | 1953 | .svg.png){kind=small} József Kis Dala | 1999–2000 | not held |
| 1931 | István Liszkai | 1954 | not held | 2001 |  Mikoš Rnjaković |
| 1932 | József Vitéz | 1955 | Győző Török | 2002 | Zoltán Vanik |
| 1933 |  Kurt Stettler | 1956 | Győző Török | 2003 | Zoltán Remák |
| 1934 | Károly Szenes | 1957–1961 | not held | 2004 | Zoltán Remák |
| 1935 | Károly Németh | 1962 | Adolf Christian | 2005 | Tamás Lengyel |
| 1936 | not held | 1963 | András Mészáros | 2006 | Martin Riska |
| 1937 | Anton Strakati | 1964–1992 | not held | 2007 | Andrew Bradley |
| 1938–1941 | Was not held | 1993 | Jens Dittmann | 2008 | Hans Bloks |
References
- ↑ "A Tour de Hongrie története" (in Hungarian). Tour de Hongrie official website.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "A Tour de Hongrie rövid története" (in Hungarian). Nemzeti Sport Online. 21 June 2003. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ↑ "A szlovákiai Robert Nagy révén P-Nívó-siker a szlovákiai szakaszon" (in Hungarian). Nemzeti Sport Online. 26 July 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
- ↑ "Idén nem lesz Tour de Hongrie, Central European Tour lesz "helyette"" (in Hungarian). Velo.hu. 22 June 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2011.