Dunbar puts in big shift in Poland, Evenepoel wins after 50km solo | Video | Sticky Bottle

Eddie Dunbar was on the front for mile after mile at the Tour de Pologne after Richard Carapaz crashed and Ian Stannard also came down and had to abandon. While Carapaz got back on he was badly injured and when Remco Evenepoel went solo with 51km to do, Ireland's Dunbar was left to do the chasing for about 30km on the hilly circuit (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski Cycling)

Eddie Dunbar put in an epic shift at the Tour de Pologne
stage 4 on Saturday, though a crash for team mate and race leader Richard
Carapaz spoiled the day for both riders.

Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won the stage by over two minutes after a 50km solo breakaway on the hilly circuit in Bukowina Tatrzańska, completed three times. He took the race lead after a monumental performance on the 152.9km stage.

As he crossed the line for an emotional celebration he
held his team mate Fabio Jakobsen’s race number over his head in tribute to the
Dutch champion who is recovering in hospital after his horrific crash on stage
1.

Carapaz had won yesterday’s stage to take the race lead
while Dunbar moved up to 10th overall.

However, the Team Ineos pair suffered worse luck on stage 4 with Carapaz crashing just inside the 70km to go marker and badly injuring his back and the bag of his left leg. His team mate Ian Stannard also fell and was forced out of the race.

*Evenepoel carried Fabio Jakobsen's race number in his pocket through the stage and used it in his victory celebration (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski Cycling)*

Richard Carapaz rode for almost 70km clearly badly injured after his crash. His fall and the chase back on left Team Ineos on the back foot and Eddie Dunbar had to do much of the chasing, to no avail (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski Cycling)

While Carapaz got back into what remained of the peloton,
with a breakaway already up the road, he was clearly severely injured.

After a number of attacks from the group once the yellow
jersey was back on board, the early breakaway was caught and Evenepoel attacked
with 51km to go.

As he rode away it was left to Eddie Dunbar to do most of
the chasing after him; something that would continue for the best part of an
hour.

With just under 40km to go Dunbar had been on the front of the chasing group on his own for a prolonged time as Carapaz dropped back to the team car.

At that point the gap to Evenepoel was only 45 seconds,
but still Dunbar could get no assistance in the chase despite being surrounded
by top quality riders who were well placed overall.

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He became frustrated after gesturing to the others to
help in the chase, only for his appeal to fall on deaf ears, and so he made a
solo move off the front.

While he was caught very quickly, a number of counter
attacks were launched and Dunbar pulled clear in a group with junior world
champion Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Patrick
Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe).

That group was soon caught, only for Dunbar to go clear
again with Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott); being caught and going clear once
more, this time pulling five others clear for a period.

However, as the race reached the 25km to go marker, and with Evenepoel having pulled out almost one minute on the chasers, Dunbar was forced into team duties for Carapaz and when that group began to split he paid for his efforts.

*Evenepoel was emotional after his win as team mate Jakobsen was still recovering from his crash on the opening stage of the race (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski Cycling)*

The stage began as expected; Team Ineos leading the way with Carapaz and Dunbar saving themselves for later. However, things were blown off course when Carapaz crashed and only Dunbar was left to chase for him during the final lap (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski Cycling)

Initially Fuglsang got clear with Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe)
and Simon Yates (Mitchelton Scott) and although they shared the workload in
their three-man chase group, they never made any inroads into Evenepoel’s
advantage. Indeed, when they reached the hardest part of the circuit the gap
went up.

As the leader pressed on and the three chasers tried to
peg him back, it was Dunbar on the front of the larger group doing the chasing
on behalf of Carapaz for mile after mile.

He was only relieved of those duties on the front on his
own when Carapaz attacked from the group with 16km remaining in a bid to salvage
something from the stage, at which point Dunbar sat up and rode in to the
finish.

Carapaz was trying to close a gap of 1:40 to Evenepoel
and 40 seconds to the trio up ahead. However, after a short-lived effort, the
gaps only increased.

Up ahead, Fuglsang attacked the others with about 12km to
go and got clear and that’s how it stay to the finish; Evenepoel absolutely
romping home after a 50km solo breakaway to win by 1:48 from Fuglsang.

Yates and Majka were next – in 3rd and 4th – some 2:22
down on the winner. Diego Ulissi (UAE-Team Emirates) was best of the group that
Dunbar and Carapaz had been in for so long, placing 5th some 3:05 down on
Evenepoel and finishing on the same time as Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) in 6th place.

Carapaz was way back in 16th place at 3:21 and Eddie Dunbar was 26th at 8:42. Evenepoel now leads overall by 1:52 from Fuglsang as Yates is 3rd overall at 2:28 with just one stage remaining on.