Team Ineos hails Eddie Dunbar breakaway efforts on Britain queen stage | Sticky Bottle

*Eddie Dunbar drilled across to his team mate up the road before driving the breakaway on as much as he could on Tour of Britain stage 4 (Photo: Alex Whitehead-SWpix.com)*

Eddie Dunbar may have lost 14 minutes to Tour of Britain stage 4 winner today, Mathieu van der Poel, but the Irishman’s team mate Dylan van Baarle has praised him.

Dunbar attacked the bunch today and bridged across a large gap to the two-man move that van Baarle had gone clear in, with Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale).

However, after helping to drive the breakaway forward, Dunbar then went back to the peloton. He eventually paid for his efforts and lost significant time.

However, while van Baarle pressed on alone out from for a long period, he too was caught; clearly the Team Ineos tactics not succeeding today.

The Dutch rider, a former winner of the Tour of Britain, said the primary responsibility to get a result for the team fell to him today, and not Dunbar.

*Eddie Dunbar of Team Ineos driving the breakaway forward on behalf of Dylan van Baarle (Photo: Alex Whitehead-SWpix.com)*

*Van der Poel in full flight up the climb to the finish line; powering in for another brilliant win and also sprinting into the race lead (Photo: Alex Whitehead-SWpix.com)*

“We
wanted to make the race hard from the start, and it was a shame there was only
three of us but we made it hard enough for the other guys,” explained van
Baarle.

"The
stage was really hard as we had a headwind all day, so it was not ideal for a
three man breakaway, but we worked really well together.

Related News

Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains

Video - Italy's hero Balsamo mobbed mid-stage during Giro TT

“Eddie
Dunbar did a really good job - bit I didn't finish it off. There are some more
stages to go and it will be good to try again.

“The
team is really strong and the other guys are riding really well so hopefully we
can finish strongly on Saturday.”

The trio of Dunbar, van Baarle and Domont had over three minutes at one point on the 173.2km stage from Gateshead to Kendal.

However, the hilly moors terrain combined with the
wind – and the fact several teams were chasing behind – meant the breakaway always
looked doomed.

Dunbar was the first to drop back followed by
Domont, with van Baarle left to press on for the finish alone with 60km to go. He
was soon caught and lost over seven minutes,.

Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon Circus) won the stage
after his devastating sprint on the uphill finish overhauled a late three-man
breakaway.

In the end Team Ineos placed three man in the group
that finished three seconds behind the untouchable van der Poel.

Ben Swift was 4^th, Pavel Sivakov 16^thand Gianni Moscon 18^th. Those three are 6^th, 11^th and 13^th overall respectively; all 19 seconds down on van der Poel.