Eddie Dunbar has said while he was "disappointed" not to be selected by Ineos Grenadiers for the Giro d'Italia he had focused on keeping his form and was determined to ride well at the Tour of Hungary, which he won overall yesterday.
The Irishman put in a blistering attack on the final climb of the race - to the summit at Gyöngyös-Kékestető. He pulled clear solo from the select group and looked set to take the stage and the overall until 20-year-old Italian up and comer Antonio Tiberi (Trek-Segafredo) set off in pursuit of him.
The world junior TT champion from three years ago made relentless inroads into Dunbar's lead and just as the Irishman began to tie up in the final 100 metres to the line, Tiberi passed him for the stage victory.
Advertisement
However, the young Italian had lost 13 minutes on stage 2 and so was no threat in the overall. It meant while Dunbar lost the stage to him, he still won the overall. It was his second GC win this season having also claimed the overall at Coppi e Bartali in March.
He won the final yellow jersey yesterday by 23 seconds from Óscar Rodríguez (Movistar), with Samuele Battistella (Astana) 3rd at 28 seconds.
“I’m happy to
win GC but I really wanted to win the stage today. But it was just 40 metres
too long I think,” he said after coming to a near standstill on the finish line
such as the effort he put in to try and hold off Tiberi.
Related News
“It would
have been nice to finish it off, with the good job that all the guys did today;
Ben (Turner), Kim (Heiduk), Elia (Viviani) and Andrey (Amador) they all rode
super well. And it would have been nice just to get the hands in the air, but I
think we can be happy with a GC victory today.
Asked how he felt about his victory he said: “I think it’s another step in the right direction. The last four days went really good. I was hoping I’d get to do the Giro d’Italia this year, so I was hoping to be in Hungary for a different reason.
“Coming back from that disappointment… I stayed on
it, I kepy my condition good and it would have been easy just to come here and
back off and be disappointed at not making the Giro team. But to come here and
leave with a GC victory, I think is good for me personally and I think it’s
good for the team also.”
Dunbar said while “something happened to” Amador on
the last climb, which took him out of the finale, he explained Viviani rode
very hard on the flat yesterday while Heiduk worked on the early part of the
climb before Turner took over.
When the young British rider hit the front, just
inside 5km to go, Dunbar was in his wheel. And by the time Turner pulled over
with 2km to go, and Dunbar attacked, the group was down to just a dozen riders
or so.
It was an incredible performance, one Dunbar said
was all the more remarkable considering Turner was coming out of a classics
campaign where he played a big role in many of those races. However, when
Dunbar went, he was in the class of his own, until he faded a little and Tiberi
finished very strongly.
Asked what his programme was for the rest of the season, Dunbar said: “I actually don’t know. If I knew I’d tell you. But possibly Dauphine and maybe (Route) d'Occitanie, but I’m not sure. I think now… I didn’t get to take a break after the non-Giro selection, so I think now just go home for a couple of days, chill out and re-set for the next goals.”
