Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) is recovering from a storming performance at Giro d'Italia, where he was 7th overall. However, while he was the toast of Irish cycling - along with Ben Healy (EF Education EasyPost) - and his team after the Italian Grand Tour, the Irish climber has been looking back at some of the most difficult points of his career.
And the stand-out experience, for all the wrong reasons, was suffering concussion after a crash at the Baby Giro in 2017 when riding for Axeon Hagens Berman. It had such a significant impact on him that he now says it was the biggest learning experience of his career. Dunbar faced a lengthy period, of many months, before being fully assessed and diagnosed, and suffered a lot during that time.
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While he made it back to the top of the sport, he said he was an emotional wreck and very nearly quit cycling in January 2018. He got to that stage after losing his love for riding his bike, but also saying his concussion, and trying to stay in pro cycling, was having such a big impact on him mentally he felt he was at the end of the road with the sport.
However, he went on to ride that year for Aqua Blue Sport and after stringing some performances together, despite a lack of training, he gradually began to feel like himself again. In a really honest and open interview, Dunbar said he still suffers some of the effects of his concussion.
But the most frightening part of his story is just how bad his condition got after his crash, suffering very severe headaches, crying every day and barely sleeping, which led to anxiety and panic attacks.
"I didn't have any cuts or the usual bruises from hitting the deck hard," he said of the Baby Giro crash. "I didn't have much knowledge of concussion at the time, it wasn't a thing in cycling. We wear helmets and people think 'you wear a helmet, you're protected'.
"I went through a really bad phase, being honest. I can remember by head going towards the floor and after the accident it was a fairly blurry experience, you could say."
With the National Road Championships fast approaching he had a "constant pain" in his head, he said in an interview with Off The Ball. "I couldn't stand bright light, I couldn't stand music, couldn't watch TV, I couldn't train, couldn't concentrate. But I couldn't see anything physically wrong with myself," he said, adding because of the absence of any physical injury he did not know what was wrong with him.
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"Obviously I was fairly young so I didn't even think of the effects of concussion or anything like that. I just remember going out training one day after the crash and I was with one of my friends, Darragh O'Mahony, and I was going along the road and any time I hit a bump the pain in my head was unbelievable."
When he mentioned his issues to O'Mahony, he assured him it was not normal and tried to discourage him from making hard efforts while on the ride. However, Dunbar said he was determined to push himself in a bid to find out "what's wrong". He also went to races but "got progressively worse".
"My personality completely changed, I was probably crying once or twice a day. I'm not a big crier… (I was) completely an emotional wreck. I was sleeping for three or four hours a night, and that didn't help. Obviously that leads to other things; anxiety, panic attacks stuff like that. I was just a roller coaster of emotion really."
He added he "didn't stop training" but also did not race for eight months after the crash in the summer of 2017. It was not until December of that year when he did a 'scat' test - sport concussive assessment tool - with his team doctor. He "got the first three questions wrong and this was six months after the crash".
Dunbar added the doctor asked him if he had been properly assessed since his crash, which he had not. At that point the doctor organised a process for Dunbar, which included seeing a specialist in Dublin who diagnosed severe concussion. He added his recovery from that point was "a very slow process" and in January, 2019, he was "very close to calling it a day on the bike".
"I completely couldn't concentrate, lost the love for cycling and everything and that took a while to build back up, which was strange. You do something for so long and then all of a sudden… something like that, something you couldn't see, and that was really frustrating. I just thought 'yeah, this is it, I just can't do this any more' considering the mental impact it was having on me."
However, he got the help he needed and the injury and recovery period - of between eight to nine months - has been perhaps the "biggest learning experience of my life".
Dunbar said he then went on to join Aqua Blue Sport for 2018, with no pressure and building his training and form. While he was still suffering "bits and pieces" from the concussion - in 2018 and through the present day - once he got some results with Aqua Blue Sport he was on his way back. By the time the Irish ProConti team collapsed mid season, Dunbar had done enough to be snapped by by Team Sky for the remainder of 2018. He went on to stay with that team until the end of last season.
