Eddie Dunbar has endured crashes in recent years but sought assistance from a mindset expert who has worked with cyclists, F1 drivers and other athletes (Photo: Massimo Fulgenzi-Sprint Cycling Agency)

Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) is on the comeback trail after crashing out of the Tour de France and today did not feature at the pointy end of stage 3 at the Arctic Race of Norway, which offered him a chance with an uphill finish.

The race split on the ramp to the line, with Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) winning from race leader Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) after they pulled well clear of the oppostion in the sprint on the final short climb.

Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team) was 3rd at 12 seconds, with Ireland’s Dunbar back in 41st at 1:01 and now looks out of the general classification fight with one stage remaining. However, Dunbar’s main reason for being in Norway is to hone his shape for La Vuelta in a few weeks.

And now the sports director of Dunbar’s team has said he believed the Irishman “would have done big things” had he now crashed out of the Tour de France falling a high speed fall in the final of stage 7. David McPartland also revealed the Irishman, who has endured multiple crashes in recent years, has worked with a neurological expert, Dr Stijn Quanten, to address some of the crash issues.

Dr Quanten works with athletes, including F1 drivers, on mindset, reactions and overcoming fears, including those related to crashes, with McPartland saying Dunbar wasn’t the only pro cyclist he had worked with.

“He’s a specialist in brain cognitive thinking and works with Formula 1 drivers about things coming at you two to 300km an hour, it’s obviously not that extreme in our sport,” McPartland told the SpokesSports substack by Sophie Smith.

Tom Pidcock beats race leader Corbin Strong for victory on the uphill finish in Norway today, with Eddie Dunbar just over a minute back

“But he identifies patterns in your brain and in your reactions. It’s like a computer game, and different versions of a computer game, like, things coming at you real quick, and it measures your response times on different patterns, and then works out, ‘Right, your brain isn’t functioning in this area.’

“It’s cool work what he did. Once it’s identified there’s ways he works on improving that area. You can train it. It was through Allan Peiper actually that knew him.”

McPartland also believes, having crash out of the Tour when he was in such good shape, Dunbar is highly motivated for the Vuelta, where he won two stages last year, including the queen stage. He went into last year’s race looking for a result after his main goal of the season, Giro d’Italia, ended in a crash on stage 3.

“Last year he went into the Vuelta hungry and it’s a similar thing this year,” McPartland said. “That’s the big goal. I’d be happy if we got a couple of stages wins out of him every year. At the Tour I believed he would have done big things.”