Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) has held 5th place on today's stage 17 at Giro d'Italia and now goes into the next three days - which will decided the race outcome - with a golden chance few would have envisaged before the race began almost three weeks ago.
Tomorrow comes the 161km stage from Oderzo to Val di Zoldo which features five categorised climbs, including two cat 2s back to back to finish; the final one with pitches between 8 and 9 per cent gradient for two kilometres.
On Friday comes the harder stage 183km stage 19 from Longarone to Tre Cime di Lavaredo. It includes five categorised crimes, finishing on the 7.1km HC climb to the line, which averages 7.8 per cent but featuring 3km above 10 per and the final 2km at 14 per cent.
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Up until now, those stages would have been assessed to see if Dunbar could race with the biggest favourites. But give his form, it seems highly likely he will at least hold 5th overall and will probably leapfrog Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) into 4th. But he real question now is whether he can drop any of the top three and get on the final podium. That will be hard as the closest to him is Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), who is 2:51 up on the Irishman.
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While there is then a TT to come on Saturday, it features a climb and Dunbar should do much better on that that in the first two TTs of the race, which were flat. Today he finished in the bunch, in 26th place, on the stage in Caorle decided in a mass sprint.
Compatriot Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) had an easier day today, after all his aggression, as he now holds the climbers' jersey and there were no climbers' points on offer today. Healy, a Grand Tour debutant who won stage 8, finished in 108th in a small group 1:01 down.
The stage was won by Italian Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) in a close sprint, with Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) 2nd and Dunbar's Jayco AlUla team mate, Michael Matthews, in 3rd place. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) maintained the race lead and has just 18 seconds in hand on João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) with Roglič 3rd at 29 seconds.
