Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) was forced out of the Tour de France before the start today after his stage 7 crash. However, today he went through his preparations to start, changing into his kit – with a new bike – and getting ready to race before he decided not to go any further on the race.
After his crash yesterday with about 6km remaining on stage 7, Dunbar managed to finish the stage. But he was notably holding his arm as he was filmed sitting into one of his team cars to be taken away for medical checks. And it was that injury, to his wrist, that has now forced him out of the race.
Reflecting on the crash, he said he felt he was in career-best form and, though he was at the Tour to support team leader Ben O’Connor, he was also at the race for a shot at a stage win. He made the breakaway on stage 6 with compatriot and stage winner Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost). And though both of them crashed in the same incident yesterday, Dunbar is out after falling very heavily.
“It’s difficult. When you come down like that it takes a lot out of you mentally and physically. If you told anyone to jump out of a car at 70k an hour, with no protection, not many people would do it, I don’t think,” he said.
Dunbar was speaking to the media before the start today, in his racing gear and apparently all ready to race, before the decision was made he would go no further due to the pain in his arm.
“I’m in really good condition and I came here with high ambitions,” he said. “Obviously it’s to help Ben as best as possible and to get an opportunity to go for a stage. It’s one of the best I’ve been feeling on the bike. I prepared so well and it’s funny how quickly it gets taken away.”
He said he was unsure precisely how the crash occurred just ahead of him in the remains of the peloton, and which he was unable to avoid as he sat at the back of the group.
“It was actually pretty sketchy before that and obviously I’m not (riding) GC or anything so I just went to the back deliberately. I thought ‘there’s going to be something happening here’ because a lot of guys wanted to fight for position,” he said.
“And literally a couple of hundred metres later I found myself on the ground. It looked like some guys touched wheels or some guys locked bars, or something like that.
“I seen the crash happen but I think we were doing something like 70ks an hour. I thought I managed to hold it upright. But I just went the wrong side of the bike and I came off; came down pretty hard.
“When I got up and seen the guys on the ground I think there was a couple of bikes that were in pieces as well. This is a brand new bike today because the other one is smashed the bits.”
For his part, Healy said it was hard to tell what had gone wrong to cause the crash. The footage suggested he was almost able to stop before falling. That killed his speed and reduced the impact when he fell on top of the riders who came down ahead of him.
Dunbar fell much more heavily, doing his best to brake and slow when he saw the crash ahead of him. But he was slammed to the ground when thrown from the bike as a result of his efforts to stop at such high speed.
“From my perspective, I was trying to take it pretty relaxed at the back,” said Healy. “There was a big main road to move up on and thankfully I’d left some braking distance and I almost managed to stop. I didn’t go down too hard when I did crash.”
