Stephen Barrett, Aqua Blue Sport's head of performance, said Eddie Dunbar's attacking towards the end of a hard Tour de Suisse was very encouraging. He believes it reflects the 21-yeear-old's progression so far this season (All photos Karen M Edwards - Aqua Blue Sport)
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Aqua Blue Sport’s head of performance, Stephen Barrett, believes the Tour de Suisse showed how much Eddie Dunbar has progressed since the start of the season.
Dunbar finished in 69th place today in the final 34km TT in Bellinzona. He was 3:02 behind winner Stefan Küng (BMC Racing).
Richie Porte, also of BMC, wrapped up overall victory. He wore the yellow jersey into the test with an advantage of 17 seconds over Nairo Quintana (Movistar).
Porte finished 14th today at 1:04; perhaps further down that expected. But that was enough to see him extend his race lead.
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In the end he ran out the overall victor by 1:02 from Jakob Fuglsang (Astana).
And Quintana, who could only manage 38th today, slipped to 3rd overall. He was some 1:12 off the victorious Australian in the final standings.
For Aqua Blue Sport, it was a successful race as Mark Christian won the climbers’ classification.
The Irish ProContinental team was also very aggressive throughout. It had a presence in the breakaways through the eight road stages, which were book-ended with TTs.
And Calvin Watson also held the points jersey for a number of stages early in the race.
It was Dunbar's first WorldTour stage race and he appears to have come out of it strongly.
Dunbar leads the way in the rain, of which there was not shortage in Switzerland.
Warbasse giving it a good rattle off the front solo on stage 5.
Barrett believed Dunbar’s ability to ride in the breakaway on yesterday’s stage 8 was very positive considering it was a flat stage.
The young Irish rider was one of the last men standing from the four-man move of the day.
He was only caught, with Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), with 5km remaining in the 123km circuit race; over six laps in Bellinzona.
And Dunbar had also been in the large 29-rider escape on Friday’s stage. The race that day finished atop the 27km climb to Arosa.
All of the escapees were overhauled; Quintana winning and Dunbar finishing in 49th at 10:42.
Stephen Barrett said the kind of aggression shown by the 21-year-old Irishman over two days at the end of his first WorldTour stage race was a very positive sign for Dunbar.
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“Eddie's ride (on Saturday) was extremely impressive and illustrates his progression since the start of the season,” said Barrett.
“Given the nature of the course - and the fact that there were not real inclines which would be much more suited to his build, it was doubly impressive that he was able to escape, and stay out there.
“We could also see how well he was working in the final stages when just he and Smit were the only surviving riders from the break.
“If it was a hillier course he could have done some real damage.”
Driving the team forward: Stephen Barrett, Nicki Sørensen and Martyn Irvine.
Calvin Watson on the attack in the points jersey.
Christian took the climbers' jersey and has held it all the way; by no means easy at this level in the WorldTour.
Dunbar said he was happy to go on the attack. But he was frustrated that a mechanical had cost him on Friday’s stage before the climb to the summit finish.
He said Saturday’s stage was always going to prove hard for a breakaway to survive.
“We've been represented in every break so far in this race. And I just thought 'why not be represented in this one as well?” Dunbar said of going clear with three other riders on Saturday.
“The bunch didn't give us much leeway though. It was always obvious we were going to be caught; it was just a matter of when.
“We were told to follow moves at the start and I just followed a move. And then another move went from that...
“I just followed wheels and it ended up with four of us away. The break went a lot earlier than I thought it would.
“But with a relatively flat circuit suiting a sprint finish, plus a headwind making things difficult for us out there on the course, we all knew that the chances of us making it to the finish were very slim.
“On the last lap of the race I felt it worth my while to try for the most active rider award,” he said of his decision to continue to attack just as the peloton closed in.
“And I think it was obvious from the way I raced that that was what was on my mind.
“In the end I came up short. But still, that's the kind of racing that I really enjoy - attacking.”
He looked back at Friday’s stage 7 breakaway ride as something of a missed opportunity.
“I had fancied my chances a little bit," he said of that summit finish stage won by Quintana.
“However, I had a mechanical at a difficult point in the race, when we came down into the valley.
“And I used up a lot of energy chasing back into the break. By the time I hit the final climb I didn't have much left.
“I was fairly disappointed with that so I thought I'd go out (on Saturday’s stage 8) and try to make amends.”
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