The Dutch phenomenon, who had a 14-second lead after his success the day before, only conceded three over Yates and even beat specialist Tom Dumoulin, third, five seconds from this 9.2 km time. of postcard, between the emblematic monuments of the Hungarian capital.

"The best time trial specialists may not be here, observed the wisp. I knew it would already be very good to keep the jersey, that was the big goal. I didn't expect maybe not to find myself so close to victory."

MVDP had promised to "try" to keep the "maglia rosa" the day before, it was very close to winning.

The missing three seconds being those lost on the flat part before the final climb of the Buda hill (1.3 km at 4.9% average gradient) where he came up against Yates' reference time (9 min 50 sec , average of 46.6 km/h).

Although he explained that he had only tested his time trial bike once this season, there was little doubt about his ability to keep the leader's jersey on Saturday: he had not been clumsy in the Tour de France in July by resisting Tadej Pogagar to keep the yellow jersey in the fifth stage in Laval.

"I believed in it more than for the Tour time trial", admitted the grandson of Raymond Poulidor.

The success of Simon Yates, the fifth in a stage of the Giro, was less predictable in front of specialists like Tom Dumoulin or Joao Almeida (eleventh at 18 seconds).

"It's a bit unexpected, but I take things as they come," savored the climber from Bury.

Already the Briton, who will celebrate his 30th birthday on August 7, had shown himself to his advantage in the short time trial (13 km) of Paris-Nice in March (fifth) when he had dropped only eleven seconds to the vice-world champion in the specialty Wout van Aert.

"We put a lot of effort into our equipment this year and it paid off," he said.

The solitary effort had already smiled on him, precisely in the "race for the sun" in 2019.

Among the favourites, the Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez and the Spaniard Mikel Landa are those who suffered the most substantial disbursements (respectively 59th at 42 sec and 30th at 33 sec) in front of the belvedere of the Fishermen's Bastion offering a panorama of Instagram snapshot on Pest and the famous Gothic Parliament of Hungary.

The big favorite Richard Carapaz (19th at 28 sec), like the Frenchman Romain Bardet (17th at 24 sec), limited the damage in this exercise where they did not shine.

After the punchers then the rollers, it's time for the sprinters on Sunday for the last Hungarian stage ending on the shores of Lake Balaton where Mathieu van der Poel promised that he would be the pitcher for his teammate Jakub Mareczko.

© 2022 AFP