Eddie Dunbar and his Jayco AlUla team mates will go into La Vuelta a España intent on winning stages with its climbers, including by going in breakaways, in the Spanish Grand Tour.
Though Dunbar was 7th overall in last year's Giro d'Italia, he crashed out of the Italian race on the second stage this year. Since exiting the Giro in early May, Dunbar has finished 17th in Tour of Austria (2.1) and was 49th overall in Vuelta a Burgos (2.Pro) last week.
And now, lining for his second start in La Vuelta, the 27-year-old Cork rider is part of a team three-pronged attack to win hilly stages, rather than focus on the general classification.
That approach can, hopefully, be good news for Dunbar. It should give him a freer option to pick certain stages to target, perhaps getting into a breakaway and proving best from it on an uphill finish.
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He has been lined up alongside Italian Filippo Zana and Australian Chris Harper to aim for victories on the hilly stages. The team is also hopeful Mauro Schmid and Felix Engelhardt can go for victories, along with Alessandro De Marchi, can aim for a win on the less severe terrain.
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“We start the Vuelta with a squad built from aggressive style riders that can go into breakaways and the type of riders that can still finish it off after a day in the break," said Team Jayco AlUla sports director, Pieter Weening.
"So, our main objective is going after stage wins at this year’s race. It is a mixed team with a lot of climbers but also powerful riders like Schmid and a faster guy with Engelhardt.
"We start the race with an individual time trial and then already on stage four there is a mountain top finish. Then from stage six onwards there are plenty of opportunities, the types of stages where we can take the race on and try for stage wins.”
It will be Dunbar's second appearance in the race, which he started last year before an unfortunate crash in the neutralised zone of stage 4 saw him leave the race.
With just 32 race days in his legs so far this season, Dunbar will hopefully feel fresh in the race and his condition may have been bolstered by his Burgos ride last week.
