Having gone into UAE Tour as leader of Team Ineos and with hopes of a big performance, Eddie Dunbar said he felt good on the summit finish today but was disappointed with his result.
The Irish rider placed 10th and was in a group of six some 1:56 down on stage winner and new overall leader Adam Yates.
The Mitchelton-Scott rider attacked with almost 6km remaining to the top of the Jebel Hafeet climb and won by 1:03 from Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates).
With a sprinters' stage to come tomorrow, the race returns to Jebel Hafeet on Thursday, when Dunbar will have another chance for a result, but he was disappointed with his placing today.
“I actually felt quite good. My legs were good all day and the guys did a super job of keeping me out of trouble,” he said.
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Dunbar continued: “We communicated very well and going into that last climb we stuck to the right side of the road and stayed there until the bottom of the climb. Each and every one of them has done a great job.
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“(Michal)
Golas and (Salvatore) Puccio set a solid tempo at the bottom to help keep me at
the front. Then riders started swarming a bit, just because everyone was fresh.
“It was
super hot starting the climb and the whole way up was pretty difficult. I’m
never normally suffering in the heat but that was quite warm today. I did what
I could.
“I do normally like a bit more of a punchy climb but I
didn’t really have it today. I did try in the final 2km and I got the gap but I
couldn’t sustain it.
“Performance-wise
it was good but still a bit off the top
guys, which is disappointing,” he added, though he was looking ahead to the
next chance already.
“I think a lot of guys won’t go as hard into the climb
maybe on Thursday so they can go up it
a bit quicker,” he explained.
“The top
three guys on GC are pretty far ahead now, even compared to times last year.
“There
will be a lot of guys thinking about stage wins now compared to the overall, so
it will be raced differently I think.”
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