Eddie Dunbar said his Aqua Blue Sport team needs to keep trying to win and eventually it will. He said he tried to win the Tour de Yorkshire today; ending the day 4th and placing 8th overall (Photo: Karen M Edwards - Aqua Blue Sport)
Eddie Dunbar says he tried to win at Tour de Yorkshire
Irish rider Eddie Dunbar said he rode to try and win at the Tour de Yorkshire today; putting in an aggressive ride.
The 21-year-old put in a fantastic shift; finishing 4th on what was the queen stage and 8th overall.
But those placings don’t do justice to his approach today. He has now carried the aggression he showed as a junior and U23 into the pro ranks; much easier said than done.
On a stage when the field split to pieces, Dunbar was among the strongest when the hand grenades were thrown into the peloton on the climbs.
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Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) was out front on his own for much of the stage; some 189.5km from Halifax to Leeds.
He had broken away in a group of three early. And though he dropped the two riders he was with with over 100km remaining, the 31-year-old survived to win.
Behind him when a chase group of 10 got clear in pursuit of the lone leader, Eddie Dunbar was there.
Also present was Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing), Ian Bibby (JLT-Condor) and Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias).
Anthony Perez (Cofidis) also made the chase group, as did Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie) and Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data).
Michael Storer (Team Sunweb) was there too, along with another BMC man Pat Bevin.
Four of the riders in that group have won Rás stages in Ireland; Dunbar, Bibby, Storer and Bevin.
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Dunbar finishes third in the sprint from his group, for fourth place on the stage; behind Van Avermaet, Bibby and Prades. Rossetto was 34 seconds ahead of them on his own. Above, congratulating BMC, which won overall with Van Avermaet (Photo: KarenMEdwards - AquaBlueSport)
And while the chase group never caught the lone leader, Dunbar did his best to get across to him along.
Far from being overawed by the company he was keeping, he put in attack after attack; the kind of ready that shows he is prepared mentally and physically to win big soon.
And he implied as much in his post-race comments, confirming he was racing with victory in mind.
“I am happy (with the result) but I am really happy with how the team worked today,” Eddie Dunbar said.
“I wanted the guys to back me today because I felt like I could do something.
“I had the team completely behind me. And the least I could do was go out and try to win the race for them.
“I tried that numerous times. It doesn’t always work out but we tried. And that’s what we need to keep doing because eventually it will pay off.”
But while Dunbar sang the praises of his Aqua Blue Sport team mates; management at that team were clearly impressed with him.
Sporting Director Martyn Irvine said they wanted more from the race but he believed Dunbar had ridden out of his socks.
“I think you can never be completely happy in this game unless you win,” the former world track champion said.
“But we rode a perfect race. Rossetto was super strong and hats off to him.
“But we had Mark (Christian) in the chasing group and we also had the Eddie card to play.
“We knew the headwind later in the day would bring it all back together and it did.
“Maybe if we had had another rider in that group with Eddie we could have dealt with the counter-attacks.
“But otherwise he rode his best race possible. And it was a great team performance over the entire four stages.
“With the calibre of riders he was up against – to be one Aqua Blue Sport guy in that group and ride the race he did, it was just awesome.”
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