Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) went into this Giro d'Italia leading his team and aiming to do a general classification ride. A top five would be a dream result but a top 10 is seen as a more realistic option.
After failing to get his Grand Tour chance with Ineos Grenadiers, Dunbar has gone to Team Jayco AlUla on a three year deal looking to step up in the Grand Tours. He doesn't need to set the world on fire on this race, but he probably does need a top 10 finish to prove he is Grand Tour team leader material. Today on stage 8, some 207km to Fossombrone, he was unable to cope with the three best GC men on the final climb. But he was among the next group on the road, numbering seven riders.
Advertisement
The remarkable feature of the final climb of Cappuccini, which split the GC group today, was how unable Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) was to cope with the pace of Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma). Another notable factor was just how quickly Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) - with team mate Geraint Thomas in tow - was able to catch Roglič at that top of that climb, even though Evenepoel tried to do the same for the almost the whole ascent and failed badly.
Dunbar's presence in the seven-man chasing group at the finish - 14 seconds behind Roglič-Geoghegan Hart-Thomas - has confirmed the Irishman as a likely top 10 finisher on this race. There is still a long way to go, but Dunbar is starting to settle into that group of riders who will probably fill positions 4th to 10th on this race.
At one point on the final climb of Cappuccini, as Roglič rode away, Dunbar had the legs and the confidence to go to the front of the chasing group and try to close the gap. While the Irishman has ridden impressively on the climbs at times in his career - and won two stage races last year - we have not seen him in this position before on a Grand Tour. He is proving unafraid to lean into the team leader's role.
While he is expected to lose time to most - possibly all - of his general classification rivals in Sunday's stage 9 TT, his climbing looks like that of a top 10 finisher. If he can still say that when the race concludes in two weeks, it will be a case of 'job done'. He would likely go to La Vuelta as a protected rider and with a Grand Tour already in his legs.
Let's have a look now at how the general classification men did on on the final climb today.
The final climb, and the damage done...
The second, and final, ascent of the Cappuccini began with 5.5km remaining on the stage and with Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) already on the way to victory over six minutes up the road. The climb itself was 2.8km long - averaging 7.8 per cent gradient but reaching 14 per cent in places. By the time the general classification men reached it, their group numbered no more than 30 riders.
Once they started the climb it was Bora-hansgrohe who hit out hard on the front, trying to set up their GC men Lennard Kämna and Aleksandr Vlasov. Bob Jungels put the power down, with Kämna and Vlasov on his wheel.
However, Jungels was only on the front a couple of hundred metres when Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) moved up to the front of the group on the right. As that was happening, the group was splitting - with 10 riders pulling clear of the others.
Eddie Dunbar was last man in the group, but actually in it rather than trying to get across to it. There was then a slight regrouping, with a gap closing behind Dunbar, bring about 15 more riders into the group.
Related News
Then Kämna took over on the front, though his work was only just underway when Roglič passed him on the inside on one of the steep bends and started squeezing on the pedals. That power instantly had an impact back through the group.
Race leader Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM), who played a blinder today, was in the wheel of Roglič as he moved, though Kämna soon slotted in there, with Leknessund behind. After that trio there was then a small gap, of just a few lengths, opening to the next group of riders. That next group included Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Dunbar.
Roglič then continued to press on, with Kämna and Leknessund right behind. Evenepoel hit the front of the chasing group and it looked like he would close the gap to the trio just ahead, with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) moving with him. But then the gap stopped closing, before it became bigger, very gradually.
Up front, as Roglič kept going, it was Kämna who fell by the wayside; maglia rosa Leknessund passing the German as he tried to hold Roglič. As the road evened out a little, Evenepoel sprinted, dropping Thomas and almost closing up to Leknessund, who was still about three lengths behind Roglič.
Behind those three, Eddie Dunbar hit the front of the chasing group - which still numbered about 10 riders. But up ahead, Roglič keeping pressing forward and it was clear he was gradually distancing both Leknessund and Evenepoel.
With that, Evenepoel finally caught and passed Leknessund and sprinted after Roglič but he simply could not close the gap. And then Evenepoel looked like he blew a little, about 300m from the top of the climb. The gap to Roglič suddenly went out, as Evenpoel was caught by the small chasing group, led by Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), with Thomas on his wheel.
Geoghegan Hart had the gap to Roglič closed very quickly and was on the back wheel of the Slovenian just metres after cresting the climb, while Thomas took a little longer to get on. Evenepoel was then collected by the chasing group, which numbered seven riders - including Dunbar - at the finish and was 14 seconds down on Roglič-Geoghegan Hart-Thomas.
Apart from riding with the best 10 GC riders today, Dunbar also put some time into other men with designs on the top 10. For example, Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) was 10 seconds down on the Irishman. Lennard Kämna (Bora-hansgrohe), Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) and race leader Leknessund were 20 seconds behind the Dunbar group.
Other riders with an eye out the top 10 were 48 seconds behind Dunbar today, including: Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Domenico Pozzovivo (Israel-Premier Tech) and Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost). Dunbar hasn't yet put a serious deposit down on a top 10 result, but he is shaping up that way.
