Dunbar puts in solid Basque Country TT as Roglic crushes rivals | Video | Sticky Bottle

Eddie Dunbar put in a decent ride on the opening stage TT in the Basque Country, with his team leader Adam Yates at least staying in touch with Primoz Roglic. However, the Slovenian gained significant time on all of his general classification rivals

Eddie Dunbar has had a solid start to Itzulia Basque Country on a day when Primoz Roglic put significant time in his general classification rivals.

Roglic only won the stage 1 TT today by a matter of seconds from the riders who got closest to him, but his advantage over most of the riders he counts as his main rivals for the week ahead was more significant.

The 13.89km TT in Bilbao featured a climb at the start, followed by a descent for about 10km before another steep and technical climb up to the finish line.

Il cannibale Primoz Roglic in azione... Primo squillo ai Paesi Baschi! 📹🚴‍♂️💪#itzulia2021 #EurosportCICLISMO pic.twitter.com/NVyBS5zX3Q

— Eurosport IT (@Eurosport_IT) April 5, 2021

Roglic won the day by just two seconds from Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), with Roglic's young Jumbo-Visma team mates Jonas Vingegaard and Tobias Foss in 3rd and 4th at 18 and 24 seconds respectively.

Then came the first of the other big GC names; Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) in 5th at 28 seconds on the same time as Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) and Paddy Bevin (Israel Start-Up Nation).

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The only other general classification rider in the top 10 was Max Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe); the German taking 10th place and already now 31 seconds down on Roglic.

Ireland's Eddie Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers) finished in 59th place of the 120-rider field, losing 1:18 to the flying Roglic, who will take some beating for the overall title this week.

*Primoz Roglic on his way to stage 1 TT victory on the Basque Country earlier today*

While the two climbs on the course will have suited Eddie Dunbar, the TT is not his preferred discipline and with so much descending on the course it was a far from ideal stage for him.

Today Dunbar's team, aside from Yates, had a difficult TT on what proved to be a tricky stage for many of the big names. After Yates in 6th place 28 seconds down on Roglic, the next Ineos Grenadiers man was Richard Carapaz, down in 21st at 45 seconds.

Then came Laurens De Plus in 37th at 1:06 followed by Tao Geoghegan Hart in 42nd at 1:08, just 10 seconds ahead of Dunbar.

With three Jumbo Visma riders in the top four on the stage today, including Vingegaard (24) a potential winner after his overall victory and two stage wins in Coppi e Bartali, Ineos Grenadiers and the other teams of the GC men must now take the fight to the Dutch team.

Tomorrow's stage 2 is 154.8km from Zalla to Sestao, featuring three medium climbs, including a cat 2 in the final hour of racing, before a kick up to the finish line.