Although still a junior rider, Eddie Dunbar of the Irish team leads the King of the Mountains competition at the Tour of the North.
By Gerard Cromwell
One of only two Irish riders in yesterday’s opening stage winning breakaway at the Tour of the North, junior international Eddie Dunbar was active throughout, and picked up enough points to don the first King of the Mountains jersey of this year’s race.
“We went after about ten or fifteen kilometres,” said Dunbar today. “Myself, two Velosure guys and another British guy from the Spirit team got away and then Fraser Duncan came across with another English guy.
The gap was hovering at about 25 seconds for a long time but, all of a sudden, it went up when it started getting hilly again.”
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Although still a junior rider and racing on restricted gearing, the Cork teenager had little trouble staying with some of the top names in the race yesterday.
“It was grand most of the time but the biggest difference obviously is the gears. Yesterday, at one stage, we had a tailwind along the coast and the seniors were spun out in their eleven sprockets and I was spun out in my fourteen.
I was trying to work, but that hurt. There was a headwind and a slight drag in the time trial this morning so the gears didn’t play a big factor in it but it was very short and not really my kind of thing.”
After finishing 13th in this morning’s stage two time trial, 22 seconds behind stage winner Marcus Christie, Dunbar is now 48 seconds behind race leader Gullen in fifth overall.
While he is hoping to move up the General Classification this afternoon, the ambitious Irish international is also looking to defend that polka dot jersey he earned on day one.
“I normally go for the climbs anyway and the opportunity was there, so I just went for it,” he says of the opening day. “We have a six lap race today and every second lap we have a KOH.
I’ll probably try and get up for them but hopefully the lads can get up the road and maybe take a few points off the guy who’s second in the competition but I’d like to move up the GC too.”
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