Eddie Dunbar has already been courted by the An Post-Chainreaction team this season. However, one of the best teams on the UK scene, Rapha Condor JLT is also actively looking at the Irish teenager; seen here in the yellow jersey of Junior Tour leader on his way to his second consecutive win in the race this year (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
Having added to a fantastic junior career with the national road title in Co Cork last weekend, top Irish rider Eddie Dunbar is hoping for more at the World Championships next month as the race to sign him up for next year hots up.
The O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk rider has already been courted by the An Post-Chainreaction team, with the squad giving him a bike and gear earlier in the season.
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Such gestures are very often the first signs that a team is trying to build a relationship with a rider with a view to signing him at some point down the road; though not always immediately.
Stickybottle understands Sean Kelly’s team is not the only one interested in the Banteer teenager, with UK outfit Rapha Condor JLT also keen on him.
Informed sources have said the squad, which already counts two young Irish riders in its ranks, has been keeping a close eye on Dunbar’s progress over the past 18 months and is strongly interested in him.
Dunbar has won the Junior Tour for the past two seasons and been hugely impressive at home even when riding against elite riders.
For any young Irish rider, Felix English is a very good advertisement for Rapha Condor JLT. Always extremely fast, he has progressed hugely with the team in recent years and is now one of the very best criterium riders on the UK scene.
He has also performed strongly abroad, taking wins in Belgium and ridden very well in Nations Cup races in France and Germany. He was second overall in the Trofeo Karlsberg stage in Germany against a top flight international field in what was a Nations Cup race.
Last year, junior international Jack Sadler won two stages in the Junior Tour and was offered a place with Rapha Condor JLT for his first year as an U23 this season.
And a similar move from the junior bunch into the Continental-ranked team could now be in the offing for Dunbar.
Former national criterium champion, Felix English has been with the team for three seasons and former international Aaron Buggle rode with the squad last year.
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The team, run by regular visitor to Ireland John Herety, would perhaps be very attractive to Dunbar. It has taken its riders away to Australia for the first months of the year in the past few seasons for a prolonged training and racing trip.
Jack Sadler jumped from the junior bunch into the black of Rapha Condor JLT this year; a route that now seems open to Dunbar.
Dunbar could also continue to mostly live at home; getting to race and train in Ireland, while also riding the best of UK racing and being exposed to the tough European events that the UK team also rides.
Such a route was taken by Ryan Mullen when he jumped from junior to U23 last year. He signed for UK-based Sigma Sport and only this year, after a season of hard racing in his legs, did he sign with An Post-Chainreaction.
The jump from junior racing straight into An Post-Chainreaction is not a well worn one.
All of the Irish riders currently in the team – Mullen, Jack Wilson, Conor Dunne, Marcus Christie and Sean Downey - rode somewhere else, at least for their first year at U23, before signing for the men in green.
With Rapha Condor JLT’s interest in the young Irishman confirmed by reliable sources, it may prove a good route for Dunbar, who is now emerging as a very exciting prospect and looks set to have a number of options for 2015.
Efforts to contact Dunbar at the time of writing were not successful.
While Rapha is to end its backing of the team this year, Condor Cycles and the JLT insurance company are both continuing with the squad, which began as Rapha-Condor in 2006.
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