Sean Kelly says Eddie Dunbar has shown in this third week of the Giro that he is a Grand Tour contender among the new generation of emerging professional cyclists.
Sean Kelly believes Eddie Dunbar has shown in the Giro d’Italia he will be among the next generation of pro cycling’s Grand Tour contenders.
The former world
number one said the fact Dunbar had been in the breakaway yesterday and climbed
with the favourites on Friday was especially impressive.
He believed the
fact the 22-year-old was so strong in the final week of the race showed he was
a man for the Grand Tours.
“It’s great to
see him up in a breakaway at the end of a three-week tour because we know he
hasn’t had a lot of staging racing in the last number of years,” Kelly said.
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“He race in the
States for a number of years and he didn’t get to ride a lot of stage races
there.
“Last year he was
with Aqua Blue Sport and they didn’t the kind of invitations they were
expecting.
“So to be up there (in the breakaways) at the end of a three-week tour; that’s very promising for Dunbar."
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Sean Kelly continued of Eddie Dunbar: “Going forward, I think he will go away from this race and stamina-wise he’ll build a lot from here.
“And that’s
something you have to wait and see with a new professional; when he goes into
the longer races, how will he perform
in the third week.
“You have to wait
and see, but he has performed really well here. He’s been in the breakaway a
number of times.
“(On Friday) as
well, we saw he finished up with the overall contenders in the final. So he’s
finishing strong.
“And I think for
the future, there’s a possibility in the big tours for him. He needs a bit of
improvement maybe in his time trialing.
“But that’s
something he can work on and he’s in the right team for that; he’s in the
perfect team for that.
“And it’s nice to
see that he’s another one of the young guys coming through, like Hugh Carthy.
“It’s nice to see
those guys breaking through and in a number of years we’ll be talking about
them in the big three-week tours.”
For his part,
Dunbar said yesterday’s stage was very hard; having ridden in the breakaway and
been caught and distanced on the final climb.
“It was a really hard day, the pace was really fast all
day and it took the break ages to get away,” he said of stage 20, the final
road stage of the race.
“Then once we were able to get clear, we had a strong
group and again, it was really fast. It was a super tough day.
“But I’m still feeling as ok as you can after three weeks
and I’m really looking forward to rounding my first Grand Tour off with the TT
and to get the last out of the legs.”
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