It may have been in the offing for a long time, but you're not confirmed until your name is on the team sheet and Eddie Dunbar is now officially selected by Team Jayco AlUla to ride the Tour de France.
It will be his debut ride in what is the biggest race in the world. However, Dunbar has already started four Grand Tours and finished three of them - placing 7th in the 2023 Giro and winning two stages, on the way to 11th overall, at last year's Vuelta.
He has had an up and down season so far, though goes into this race as a deluxe domestique for Australian Ben O'Connor. However, he will also be ready and willing to take any chances that may come his way, especially if O'Connor's general classification challenge falters.
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Dunbar is on the team with O'Connor and fellow debutants Luke Plapp and Mauro Schmid. Also in the team are: Elmar Reinders, Luka Mezgec, Dylan Groenewegen and Luke Durbridge, the latter making his 11th appearance in the race.
Sports director, and former Paris Roubaix winner, Matt Hayman said the team was intent on supporting O'Connor in the general classification and Groenewegen in the sprints, including the opening day on Saturday into Lille.
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"We’ll have the national time trial champion and road race champion, Luke Plapp and Luke Durbridge, as Australians in the team, along with Ben, who is the first Australian GC leader for the team," Hayman said.
"There’s quite a lot of punchy, classics-style stages and we’ve got a time trial in there before we move into the mountains," Hayman added of the first 10 days of racing.
"Overall, we’ve identified probably five or six stages that are too hard for the sprinters that could be potential breakaway or punchy days, then a couple of time trials, a flat one first and then a mountain time trial, and then some big mountain stages.
"It’ll be a stressful first 10 days for the riders and myself, particularly around the GC. We’ve seen in the past that the Tour de France is always stressful, it’s the biggest race and the riders become nervous.
"There’s always the potential for time gaps for the GC guys. You never know what’s going to happen in the Tour de France from day to day. I expect it to be superfast, I expect there to be a lot of eyes on that battle and hopefully because of that we can find some opportunities with our guys.”
