Eddie Dunbar has nudged himself into the top 20 overall at Giro d'Italia on a day when his team, Jayco AlUla, piled on the pressure and won the stage with Michael Matthews. Both Dunbar and fellow Irish rider Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) finished in the reduced peloton, which numbered just 60 riders due to the pace on the lumpy finale.
Jayco AlUla lit it up on the penultimate climb, with Italian national champion Filippo Zana doing a sterling job on the front as his Irish team mate sat just behind. When that climb was completed, the field had been shredded, as groups were repeatedly spat out the back.
While the vast majority of the top sprinters were quickly dropped, Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) doggedly hung in. And though Pedersen was distanced for a time, his team mates brought him back to the group.
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While Trek-Segafredo were also best in the closing stages, leading out Pedersen into Melfi after 213km of racing, Matthews kicked first on the technical and wet finish. Once he got the jump, he just about held off Pedersen and Groves, who were 2nd and 3rd.
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Healy was solid today and able to sit in the group at his ease even when he was down to less than 40 riders. He placed 21st on the stage while Dunbar was 26th, both on the same time as the winner. With so many riders dropped, Healy and Dunbar nudged higher in the general classification.
Dunbar is up seven places to 19th, some 1:47 down on race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). Healy moves up 14 places to 32nd, some 2:07. However, the real boost today was for Dunbar, with his team's confidence now sky high after a stage win so soon on the race and the Irishman acknowledged as much in his post-race interview.
"Incredible," was Dunbar's verdict on the team forcing the pace to hurt the sprinters in the hope Matthews could win. "We had this flagged as a stage that could suit Bling (Matthews) and the guys rode absolutely incredible.
"I didn't do nowhere near as much as the rest of them, but they rode super and Bling finished it off. It was a great day for the team, third stage of the Giro and a stage win already so it's really positive. The pressure's off and we're all feeling good and I don't think we're going to stop there."
