Eddie Dunbar, third right, looks cool and relaxed during a training ride ahead of his pro debut tomorrow. The young Corkman is in the Axeon Hagens Berman team for the two-day GP Liberty Seguros – Trofeu Alpendre. From left to right are; defending champion Ruben Guerreiro, rising British star Tao-Geoghegan Hart, Latvian champion Krists Neilands and US rider Will Barta.
By Brian Canty
Rising Irish star Eddie Dunbar gets his tenure with his new team off to a start tomorrow, Saturday, in Portugal when he competes in the GP Liberty Seguros–Trofeu Alpendre, a UCI 2.2 rated event.
The reigning Irish national U23 road race champion will love the look of the profile as there are hefty climbs on both days.
Tomorrow’s opener starts and finishes in Vila Nova de Cacela, or Cacela, a town 50 kilometres east of Faro in the very south-east of the country.
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The 151-kilometre stage features three intermediate sprint points in the opening half of the race and two category three ramps in the latter half, rising to 200 and 150 metres, respectively.
Friend of stickybottle and regular contributor Shane Stokes did a nice piece on Dunbar for CyclingTips.com, where Stokes is news editor.
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You can read that piece by clicking here: Faces of the Future: Nine things to know about Eddie Dunbar
Sunday’s stage starts and finishes in Lagoa, a town 60 kilometres west of Faro and again, there are two category three climbs, one coming after 94 kilometres (522 metres) and the other after 160 kilometres (200 metres).
There’s one sprint point towards the finish as well as a few undulations and with the finish coming after 186 kilometres, those rises will certainly sting the legs of those who are off the pace.
“I’m looking forward to getting going, it’s 18 degrees, a rolly course and though nothing too bad, I think it should still split up,” said Dunbar. “It’ll be like a Portuguese Rás!”
The event will have a participation of 23 teams of eight riders in an expected total of 184 participants from 20 countries. There are a mix of amateur and professional teams.
Dunbar has already received lots of international media attention since joining the team, despite not having raced yet this season!
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