Conor Dunne Giro Diary Irish Independent: The Israel Cycling Academy rider has signed off with his last dispatch, with getting him as soon as possible to the forefront of his mind.
Conor Dunne has signed off on his Giro d’Italia with a great Irish Independent Diary in which he explains the unceremonious end of a Grand Tour.
He has also tipped Eddie Dunbar for a Grand Tour win one day.
However, the overriding message from Dunne’s last dispatch is how much he was looking forward to getting home to see girlfriend Stacey and their new son Jesse.
He said he was not wimping out of sleepless nights and other parenting duties so he could recover.
Instead, he was planning to get stuck in at home and couldn’t wait to get home.
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“So if you're travelling on a Ryanair flight from Bergamo this evening and happen to see an overexcited, sleep-deprived, long haired, giant gobshite standing with a stupid grin on his face at the front of the boarding queue - two hours before it opens - that'll be me,” he writes.
Dunne added the beers were cracked open
on the team bus after Saturday’s last day in the mountains.
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He then rode yesterday’s TT, where all
the riders came into the Roman amphitheatre to be introduced to the crowd as
they finished.
Dunne then rode off the stage, behind
the stage backdrop and out a back exit onto the street.
”And that was it. The Giro was finished and I was literally shown the back door, rode down a side street and back into real life again, where I haven't been for three weeks.”
And he was on his way to the airport yesterday to fly back to Dublin before the last riders in the Giro had finished their TT in Verona.
He said he only realised yesterday Eddie Dunbar was up the road on Saturday while he, Dunne, was at the back focused on riding in with the large group.
Dunbar, he said, had been able to climb
so well, go on the attack and was still strong enough to help team mate Pavel
Sivakov to 9th overall.
He had been capable of all of this despite
the huge step up in standard for any pro rider riding a first Grand Tour.
It was a three-week race where the top cyclists
in the world were peaking for a key annual event.
“I don't want to put pressure on him,
but to be able to do that is pretty special and I think Eddie can win one of
these one day,” he said.
Dunne’s last Giro Diary is available by following this link.
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