Eddie Dunbar has been named as general classification leader of Jayco AlUla for the Giro d'Italia, with three domestiques picked specifically to aid him in the high mountains.
The team was confirmed this afternoon, just 48 hours after Dunbar confirmed his climbing legs were returning by finishing 9th on the summit finish of Thyon 2000 on the queen stage of Tour de Romandie while also placing 9th overall.
That was a vital confidence booster for the Irishman as well as the first time his team was able to line up for him on a high mountain stage of race as he has missed much of the season to date after a crash back in January.
Dunbar will have Alessandro De Marchi, Italian national champion Filippo Zana and Australia’s Callum Scotson to aid him when the road kicks up. The Irish rider is the general classification leader of the team while Australian Michael Matthews is also a protected rider, as he aims to land stage wins in sprints on selective stages.
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Matthews has his own small group of three around him to help him towards hoped-for stage wins including Lukas Pöstlberger, Michael Hepburn and Campbell Stewart.
David McPartland, Jayco AlUla's sports director, said the line-up of riders had been selected with a view to achieving a two-strand assault on the race via Matthews and Dunbar.
"We are very motivated to head to Italy," he said. "We have had a lot of success at the Giro over the years and we are planning for more again in this year’s edition. It’s a course that has everything, lots of time trial kilometres, both flat and mountainous.
"Then (there are) some flat road stages, many intermediate stages that can go either way, long hard mountain top finishes in the Dolomites and a spectacular last stage in Rome to wrap it up. We are bringing a rounded squad spearheaded by Matthews who will be supported by experienced riders.
"The squad is completed by the two young riders in Stewart and Zana and finally by Dunbar who will be at the Giro for the mountain stages and our general classification ambitions. La corsa rosa is one of the most spectacular and hardest races that exists on the World Tour calendar, and we are ready to give it our everything and bring home some success.”
