Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) may have seen his early season derailed by a crash, with a freakishly similar outcome as a fall 12 months earlier, but he now seems very much back on track.
The Irish rider, who broke a bone in his hand, has since returned to training and has been away with his team at altitude towards a return to racing and a start at the Giro d'Italia.
Dunbar sustained a fracture at UAE Tour just over one month ago in the crash that marred the end of the opening stage 1 into Liwa; hit from behind and knocked to the tarmac after initially avoiding the mass pile-up ahead of him.
The incident followed an earlier crash at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.Pro) at the start of February, which prevented him going any further than stage 2, though he suffered no broken bones on that occasion.
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His Jayco AlUla team mate, Luke Plapp, has now confirmed the Irishman is back out on the road and is still aiming to ride the Giro as team leader aiming for general classification.
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Plapp, who held the yellow jersey at Paris-Nice on the way to 6th overall, told bici.pro he would not target the general classification at the Giro himself as the course was too hard, saying Dunbar was working his way back towards the Italian Grand Tour.
"At the Giro I will try to give my best," he said. "At the same time, the Giro itself will allow me to better build the Olympics. These are my main goal of the season," he said.
"And then at the Giro our leader will be Eddie Dunbar. He's now at altitude and I know he's training very well. So I'll be there to support him and also Caleb Ewan, our sprinter.
"We really want to win a stage with Caleb. He had a difficult start to the year, but I only want the best for him and the team. We will do everything to win a stage."
Dunbar is provisionally scheduled to ride two stage races before the Giro; Itzulia Basque Country (2.UWT) from April 1st to 6th and Tour of the Alps (2.Pro) from April 15th to 19th. The Giro starts in Venaria Reale on May 4th.
