Eddie Dunbar (23) named by Team Ineos for Il Lombardia debut

Eddie Dunbar on the front last weekend during the penultimate stage at Tour de Pologne after his team mate, and yellow jersey, Richard Carapaz crashed. They are both back in action in Il Lombardia tomorrow

Eddie Dunbar has been named in the Team Ineos line-up for this weekend's Il Lombardia alongside Giro d'Italia champion Richard Carapaz.

Both were protected riders at last week's Tour de Pologne, which went badly wrong from the team when Carapaz crashed on the penultimate stage while leading the race overall and having won the previous day.

Though the Ecuadorian got back on his bike and chased back onto what remained of the peloton, he suffered very serious abrasions to his legs and upper body.

Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won the stage solo by almost two minutes as the chase behind him on the undulating circuit split the field to pieces.

Dunbar was on team duties for Carapaz for about an hour; riding on the front of a large chase group in pursuit of Evenepoel but to no avail.

Advertisement
Related News

In the end both Dunbar and Carapaz lost significant time and Carapaz did not start the final stage the following day. However, both are back for Il Lombardia tomorrow, Saturday, when they will face a quality field that includes red hot favourite Evenepoel.

George Bennett's winning attack at Gran Piemonte on Wednesday was a devastating one. His victory there and recent form mean he could win Il Lombardai (Photo: LaPresse - Marco Alpozzi)
Remco Evenepoel finishes the final stage in Poland to wrap up his overall win, another one. All eyes will be on the young Belgian tomorrow to see if he can take his first monument victory (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski)

Tomorrow will be Dunbar's first appearance in Il Lombardia and the 23-year-old Irish cyclist faces into the 231km monument classic alongside Tao Geoghegan Hart, Gianni Moscon, Salvatore Puccio, Iván Sosa and Ben Swift as well Carapaz.

Last year's winner Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) is back again and while most of the big general classification riders are currently riding Critérium du Dauphiné, there is no shortage of talent on the start list for tomorrow's race.

While Evenepoel is a stand-out favourite, so too is Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Russian champion Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana), who won the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge last weekend.

George Bennett leads Jumbo-Visma into the race after a brilliant win midweek at Gran Piemonte; his aggressive victory there and supreme form of late riding for Primoz Roglic mark out the Kiwi as a genuine contender for victory tomorrow.

Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) are also set to start the race and any one of them could win if on a good day.