Eddie Dunbar stretches his legs with an attack off the front in the rain on the final stage of five in Portugal.
Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar was on the attack again in Portugal on Sunday during the wet concluding stage of the five-day Volta ao Alentejo.
The 19-year-old, riding for US-based Axeon Hagens Berman Cycling Team, would eventually finish in 39th place in a much depleted peloton of just 60 riders after the 172.3km stage from Santiago do Cacém to Évora.
However, having ridden in a solo escape for almost 80km on stage 2 and assisted his team effort through the week, Dunbar again could be seen attacking off the front yesterday.
His aggression suggests he is coming out of his opening events of the season – a two-day in Portugal last weekend and the five-day that ended yesterday – with good legs.
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He and his team mates did much of the damage on Friday’s stage 3 when with 40km remaining they rode on the front ensuring the race split and remained split, with all of the team’s riders making the front group of 40 men.
Dunbar, second rider from left, on the podium with team classification winners Axeon Hagens Berman.
On the final general classification Dunbar nudged into the top 20, taking 20th place some 2:12 down on Enric Mas (Klein Constantia) who took the final yellow jersey in the UCI 2.2-ranked race.
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The 21-year-old winner also took the points jersey and young rider classification. He claimed victory on stage 2 and having lost his yellow jersey the follow day he won it back yesterday.
He took the title on points when finishing equal on time with Krister Hagen (Team Coop-Øster Hus), who held the yellow jersey going into the final stage.
Dunbar's team placed no fewer than three riders in the top 12, taking the team classification for their efforts.
Tao Geoghegan Hart of Great Britain was 6th, American Logan Owen was 11th and Latvian Under 23 national road champion Krists Neilands finished 12th. They also placed at least one rider in the top 10 of each stage, with seven top 10s in total.
The team suffered a number of crashes and illnesses, with assistant director Jeff Louder saying he was delighted with how his charges faced those challenges along the way, especially considering it was just their second race of the year.
"What I am most happy with was the attitude and toughness of the guys," Louder said.
"Besides the difficult racing, we had a lot of injuries and illnesses to contend with. But everyone still showed up every day to race and support each other.
“I was very happy that all seven got to stand on the podium together. Winning the team title is a perfect summary of how well the guys performed all week."
On the final stage, a stretch of wet cobbles in the closing kilometres made for a hard fought finish.
The stage was won by Remi Cavagna (Klein Constantia) who managed to put a couple of seconds into everyone else in the charge to the line.
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