Eddie Dunbar congratulates Eduard Prades from Movistar after he won the stage. However, the young Irish rider excelled and he sounds bullish as he looks forward to the weekend ahead (Photo: Kim Caritoux)
Irish rider Eddie Dunbar just missed out on taking the first classification leader’s jersey of his WorldTour career today in France.
The Team Sky man only needed a single second to claim the young rider classification lead.
But when the stage came down to a sprint from the breakaway of nine, there were no time gaps.
And that meant no opportunity for the Banteer man to nick the second he needed and claim a jersey on Tour de la Provence (2.1) stage 2.
He had finished in 38th place in the 8.9km TT in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer yesterday; the flat course on a breezy day suiting the bigger men.
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Eddie Dunbar was 40 seconds down and on the same time as one other rider; David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).
On today’s opening road stage Gaudu, who like Dunbar is aged 22 years, also made the breakaway. And it meant he shot to the top of the young rider classification.
The Frenchman is on the same time as Dunbar but ahead overall by virtue of his TT placing; where he was also placed ahead of Dunbar though on the same time.
Eddie Dunbar third in line in the Team Sky train on the front early in the stage; race leader Ganna is fifth wheel. Izagirre, far right, just takes the win from Tony Gallopin. Dunbar is obscured behind the AG2R-La Mondiale runner-up.
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However, Ireland’s newest addition to the WorldTour ranks wasn’t preoccupied with missing out on a jersey.
Indeed, Dunbar was looking forward to the next couple of stages, which include undulating roads on both days with climbs near, rather than at, the finishes.
He rode a fantastic race today; marking many of the attacks inside the testing final 15km as his team mate Filippo Ganna was in the race leader’s jersey.
And when nine men pulled clear towards the top of the Les Cretes climb, Dunbar was among them. He then took 5th in the nine-man sprint for the stage win after 191.6km into La Ciotat.
Furthermore, he is now 7th overall just 15 seconds off the race lead. Spanish national champion Gorka Izagirre (Astana) leads after he was 3rd on the stage today; Eduard Prades (Movistar) winning the day.
“I thought we rode well all day as a unit. We didn’t get too much help out there from other teams until it kicked off towards the end,” Eddie Dunbar said of what was a very impressive performance.
“It was a good day out and the next few days should be interesting,” he added of the two stages to come.
“We can take a back foot really and hopefully be the ones to make a difference at the end, rather than taking it on from the start.”
Very strong on the climbs
He added that Gaudu’s acceleration on the climb was hard to follow initially, though he soon steadied himself.
“When I first went with Gaudu it was a tough effort, as the fight into the climb was actually harder than the climb itself,” he said.
“But after three or four minutes, once I got into the swing of things, I felt pretty good.
“It’s my first proper road race of the year and it was certainly a lung-opener. But it bodes well for the next few days.
“I think with the quality of riders that are here, and looking ahead to some of the races that are coming up, there will certainly be guys who are looking to race aggressively tomorrow.
“It’s pretty clear they are keen to race hard so I think we could see some shakeups on the GC, and certainly on Sunday.”
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