Cycling - “Excellent form and morale”: Alessandro Covi back in the saddle at the Tour of Hungary - Sport - Varese News

Alessandro Covi's 2025 season resumes on Wednesday 13 May. The spearhead of Varese cycling is not competing in the Giro d'Italia with his UAE Emirates but has been selected for a shorter but high-level stage race, the Giro d'Ungheria.

The “Puma di Taino” had a very good first part of the racing year , finally returning to success – or rather, to successes – after almost three years of fasting: on April 15 he won the opening stage of the Giro d'Abruzzo (taking the race leader's jersey for a day) while on April 26 he beat his opponents in the third stage of the Vuelta Asturias where he almost took the points classification jersey.

In Hungary it is possible that Covi could aim for a hat-trick: the Magyar race (five stages) is attended by six World Tour teams and numerous Professionals including Polti VisitMalta , because the sponsor Kometa has strong interests in Hungary. The UAE will give Puma the role of captain or at least leader of the team that then has the Colombian Molano to spend in the sprint.

"I'm very happy to be back in the race at the Tour of Hungary ," explains the 26-year-old rouleur from Taino. "I raced here last year and found some very beautiful places to tackle on my bike. This season I've won twice, my form and morale are great . We have a strong team with a sprinter like Molano who is a threat in the sprints. In short, we're aiming to win ."

Ivan Basso's Polti is instead looking for its first seasonal success : up to now the white-red-green have animated numerous races and collected interesting placings without however hitting the big target. In Hungary - the second open front for the team together with the Giro - Diego Sevilla will act as director in the race, Manuel Peñalver will try to make his way in the sprint while for the climbs there are German Gomez and Fernando Tercero.

As mentioned, the Tour d'Hongrie is divided into five stages: the decisive one for the general classification should be the third one with a mountain finish in Gyongyo. In the other stages, the sprinters should have plenty of space but on each day there is some steep climb suitable for those looking for solo action or in a small group. It is crucial to remain alert in every situation to read the race: when there are few stages, there is no margin for error.