The Irishman, aged 22 years, was the man of the stage; letting rip with a brilliant attack about 20km out on the climb at Otley.
Eddie
Dunbar came through a hectic final section of the Tour de Yorkshire stage 4
yesterday for 3rd on the day and 3rd in the final classification.
He
countered a move by Team Ineos team mate Chris Froome on the climb.
But
while Froome split the reduced peloton and dragged clear a select group of
about 10 riders, he couldn’t shake them.
Then Dunbar went, and he was gone; a huge gap opening and nobody willing or able to go after him.
He put in an effort of such quality from the moment of his attack all the way to the line that he is now firmly in the mix for a possible Giro ride.
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He
caught three riders ahead and dropped them one by one. It was only at the very
end, after he was virtual leader on the road, that he tied up just a little.
Greg van
Avermaet’s CCC Team had reduced the gap to Dunbar for him and on an
uncategorised incline with about 5km to go the Belgian attacked.
Only
race leader, Team Ineos man Chris Lawless, could go with the Olympic champion;
sitting on Van Avermaet, the only man in the race able to tame the Irish rider.
They caught Eddie Dunbar, who then rode to the line for Lawless as Alex Kamp, equal on time with Lawless, was just seconds behind.
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Dunbar rode his legs off all the way to the line only coming off the front on the approach when Van Avermaet started his sprint to win the stage. Lawless was 2nd and Dunbar 3rd.
“There was a lot of information coming through the radio and a lot of back and forth,” Eddie Dunbar said of a hectic final 15km or so.
“When
it got to 10k to go my legs were pretty much on the limit. But I just said I’d
keep going, to make it as hard as possible and for them to come across,” he
said of Van Avermaet and Lawless.
“I
seen Greg and Chris coming across to me and so I just latched on to them. And I
tried to empty the tank for Chris.
“But we knew that, worst case scenario, if he finished 2nd he’d still win the GC. So it was about keeping him away from the other guys and he’d win the race overall.”
Asked
if the plan was for him to attack if Chris Froome’s aggression didn’t see him
pull clear on the climb in Otley, the Irishman said there was no such plan.
“No,
but it’s just old school cycling tactics. A guy like Froomey attacks and all
the guys are under pressure,” he said.
“I
looked back and I saw that Greg was kind of grimacing after that attack. And I
said ‘right, this is a good place to go now’.
“It
wasn’t raced fully hard all the day, so I knew the group would come back
together,” he said of the select group getting much bigger just after the Otley
ramp.
“As I
said, it was just using my head and trying to make it as hard as possible for
the group to catch back on.
“I
knew Chris was going well and we back him today and performed. I’m very good
friends with Chris and he’s a really talented bike rider when he puts his mind
to it and I think he showed that today.
“This
was a really hard course and he was up there. He’s known to be a sprinter but I
think today he proved he’s a bit of an all-rounder. And he can perform in
shorter stage races.”
Asked
to describe what being on the podium meant to him, Dunbar replied: “It’s incredible.
The main thing is we have Team Ineos first on the podium.
“On a personal note, it’s nice to come back and get 3rd overall here in a race like this. It’s one of my favourite races. And I hope to come back one day and win it."
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