Eddie Dunbar put in a big shift on the climbs of the Tour de Suisse today to set up his Ineos Grenadiers team leader for the big finish. And Richard Carapaz made no mistake in winning the stage and taking the yellow jersey.
While Ireland's Dunbar has come into great form of late, his ride today really showed off his world class level. His selfless performance to catapult team mate Carapaz to success saw him lose ground on the final climb.
However, Dunbar still ended the 175.2km stage from Gstaad to Leukerbad in a more than solid 12th place. And though he
relinquished 3:39 to his stage-winning team mate, the Irishman moved up five
places to 11th overall.
And if he can keep this form going over the next three stages, Eddie Dunbar looks in a great position to take a top 10 overall in the eight-stage WorldTour race.
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There were three climbs in the final 40km today,
including the 9km Erschmatt – 8km at 8.4 per cent. That was followed by the 4.1km
climb of Leukerbad, at seven per cent, to the finish line.
There was plenty of action early in the stage, with several attacks and escapees going clear. Race leader, and double stage winner, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Fenix) even joined the early moves and at one points his small breakaway had several minutes in hand.
However, there was an air of inevitability that today was
going to be instrumental in bringing real shape to the general classification
and it was never going to be a day for the breakaway.
Eddie Dunbar really came into his own in the final 25km of the race; from the penultimate climb on. It was on that testing 9km ascent of Erschmatt that the finale really began to unfold.
Antwan Tolhoek (Jumbo-Visma) made his move almost
immediately the road kicked up. At that point, the remains of the peloton were
led by Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) with Dunbar and Carapaz behind.
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However, when Esteban Chaves (BikeExchange) attacked
after Tolhoek with 23.5km to go, Dennis pulled over and it was up to Dunbar to
earn his corn; and earn it he did. The Irish climber pulled the group along.
Dunbar set about trying to keep Chaves at a controllable distance, as well as deterring attacks from the other general classification men. As the top of the climb neared, and Tolhoek had faded, Chaves had a gap of almost one minute.
Back in the chasing group, the pace was still being forced by Dunbar on the front, before Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Premier Tech) attacked in the final 1km of the ascent. His surge very quickly cut the gap to Chaves by half. Still, Chaves led over the top of the climb and was pursued by Fuglsang.
Behind Fuglsang a chase group formed. It contained Lucas Hamilton (BikeExchange), Max Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education Nippo), Domenico Pozzovivo (Qhubeka Assos), Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Carapaz.
Dunbar fell back on the upper slopes of the climb. But by the time the descent of was done and the final climb was starting, the Irishman had clawed his way back up to the chase group with a couple of other riders.
On the last climb, Chaves and Fuglsang had teamed up and were pressing ahead. However, with almost 6km to go Fuglsang dropped his Colombian rival. Back in the select group, Woods was first to attack after the two leaders.
However, Carapaz soon put in a much harder dig, getting clear on his own and catching and passing Chaves. Carapaz then caught Fuglsang with about 3km to go and then beat him at the finish despite doing most of the work on the front.
Just 39 seconds later came a group that took placings 3rd
to 8th containing, in order: Woods, Hamilton, Uran, Schachmann, Alaphilippe and
Pozzovivo.
Yellow jersey Van der Poel was 102nd today and lost just over 20 minutes. The stage result saw Carapaz assume the race lead, with Fuglsang now 2nd at 26 seconds and Schachmann 3rd at 38 seconds.
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