By Shane Stokes
Eleventh overall restarting the race on Tuesday after the first rest day, at up to 9th after that stage, Eddie Dunbar has spoken with optimism about how his Giro d’Italia campaign has been thus far and also about his form.
“I think it’s gone as well as it could have really in the first week,” Dunbar told stickybottle. “Obviously, stage two, there was that 19 seconds lost getting caught up in that crash. A couple of other GC guys also lost that time too. I think that’s the only [blip]…obviously I knew I’d lose time in the time trials, but that’s the only other place where I’ve lost a bit of time. So yes, it’s so far so good, I think.”
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Dunbar started Wednesday's 12th stage 2 minutes and 32 seconds behind new race leader Thomas, who took over from Recmo Evenepoel after the Belgian withdrew with Covid.
Of that deficit, he conceded 30 of those seconds to Thomas in the opening time trial and a further one minute 29 on Sunday. Given the flat parcours of the latter and his speciality as a climber, he takes encouragement from that.
“I can definitely see an improvement in time trials this year,” he said. “I can see it in terms of aerodynamics and power output, which is always a good sign when the two are getting better. There’s still a bit of work to do on it, but for sure, every TT I’ve done since Romandie, I’ve gotten better, I felt. Sunday’s TT wasn’t really suited to a guy with my characteristics, but I think I limited the losses as best as I could.”
Those solid performances come from his good physical condition, which has even surprised Dunbar. “My form is probably a bit better than I expected. I knew coming into the race I was going well. I always knew that. But it’s definitely in a better place than I thought it would be, given the lack of racing I had coming into it. But then again, I finished Romandie very well. That gave me a bit of a boost.
“There’s one or two hard days over the next six days, I think, but that last week you have two or three stages where hopefully a few guys in front of me will feel it a bit. And hopefully I don’t and I can move up [laughs]. That’s all I can hope for.”
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The Giro d’Italia was always a big goal for Dunbar this year. It is the second Grand Tour of his career, and his first as a designated team leader. His Jayco AlUla team said he’d get that opportunity to lead, but things looked a little uncertain for a while after he crashed on his very first day of racing this year, fracturing his hand.
He was a full two months out of racing, but kept working hard to minimise the disruption. He told Stickybottle prior to the Giro that he expected his lack of racing to perhaps limit him slightly early on, but that he believed his form would keep building. He said that the third week would hopefully see him really hitting strong form.
Given what has been a better than expected start for him, does he still envisage further improvements?
“Yeah,” he answered. “I’ve gone through the last few days fairly well. A couple of tricky days there, like stage eight, with a bit of a crazy final. They are tricky days where it’s very easy to lose 30 seconds, it is easy to lose a minute, or even minute and a half, for a GC guy if you’re out of position, if you’re caught out. But the team did a super job there and kept me in position.
“I finished in good company that there, and that was full on racing there for that last 50, 60k. So to come through that stage in the position I did that was big confidence boost. Obviously, there are bigger GC days to come than that. But that was a tough one.”
From this point on the race heads into higher terrain, with plenty of climbing beckoning in the final two weeks. He takes encouragement from this, believing that the earlier stages were the ones which, on paper at least, would be more challenging to him.
“They are the tricky ones when you don’t have racing in your legs, I always think,” he explained. “Because they’re punchy, and they’re technical and positioning in the bunch is key. They’re the ones that I’d be mostly saying ‘all right, these are the tricky stages.’
“When you get into the Dolomites and a couple of stages in the Swiss Alps, they’re more just about legs. It’s not super technical. It’s just literally having that tempo on the climbs and staying with the front group as long as possible.
“I’m still confident I’m going in a good direction. And I’m feeling good…”
