Eddie Dunbar throws his bike over the finish line, but Gino Mader had a little bit more in his legs at the end of the final stage.
Video Eddie Dunbar Tour de l'Avenir final sprint
The overhead footage of the sprint to the finish line on the final stage of the Tour de l'Avenir shows just how close Eddie Dunbar came to winning the day.
Eurosport's footage, below, shows Ireland's Dunbar initially throw a dummy attack in the hopes of forcing one of his rivals in the escape to open the sprint first.
He then opts to take it up himself. And when he kicked first he opened up a large gap. With the finish line just ahead, he looked like he had it in the bag.
However, Swiss rider Gino Mader (21), who had already won a stage and was 3rd overall, clawed his way back up to the Irish rider.
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As the video shows, he pulled level with Eddie Dunbar (21) and then just edged ahead of him right on the line.
It meant Dunbar had to settle for 2nd. He adds that to the 9th place he took on stage 7 and his 8th overall.
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But aside from the results, Dunbar can take a huge number of positives from the race.
It went over major mountains; the Col du Glandon was yesterday's finishing ascent, for example.
And Dunbar not only proved one of the very strongest among the world's best, he was one of the few able to attack.
He was only beaten yesterday by probably the strongest climber in the race. And Dunbar was among only two or three riders who still looked very strong at the end of the race.
The Aqua Blue Sport man has already ridden exceptionally well at times this year. His Tour de l'Avenir performance was the best ever by an Irish U23.
And on the basis of his climbing prowess and his current form, he can go into the hilly World Championships next month full of confidence.
Gino Mader wins the final stage of @tourdelavenir, and Tadej Pogacar takes overall victory! #tourdelavenir pic.twitter.com/4IiEsScCB5
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) August 26, 2018
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