Eddie Dunbar has been riding with mixed fortunes at Ruta del Sol in Spain, coming up a little short on the opening stage uphill finish. He finished 39th, some 38 seconds down on stage winner Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar), after being in contention right into the final kilometre.
On Wednesday’s stage 2, which had a very steep uphill finish that would have suited the Irish climber, Dunbar suffered a puncture at the base of the penultimate climb.
And while he chased back on he paid for his efforts later, eventually finishing in 36th at 2:37. The Irishman's Ineos Grenadiers team mate Ethan Hayter won the stage and took the yellow jersey.
That meant Dunbar and his team mates had a yellow jersey to defend on yesterday’s hilly stage 3 and with 70km to go yesterday a breakaway had two minutes and Ineos Grenadiers were riding on the front.
Advertisement
The gap to the day’s breakaway was down to one minute
with about 20km to go as Movistar pressed hard in the bunch on the Alto del
Futsal. On that climb the breakaway exploded and were all eventually caught.
The peloton was filleted by Movistar on the climb, with
race leader Hayter one of those who couldn’t follow the pace. Dunbar initially
looked very strong, sitting just behind the Movistar riders on the front of the
bunch as it was quickly cut back to a select group.
Dunbar and his Ineos Grenadiers team mate Carlos
Rodriguez were both part of the 10-man group that was pulled clear of everyone
else on the climb by Movistar’s work.
Related News
However, as Gonzalo Serrano of Movistar pushed on even more with team leader Lopez in his wheel, the select group was reduced to just five. Dunbar slipped off the back of it with 18km to go and Lopez’s team mates were also dropped just after him.
Going down the climb, the Lopez group numbered six as it now included some of the last breakaway men to be caught. And about one minute back the road was a chasing group of four, containing both Dunbar and Rodriguez for Ineos Grenadiers, with yellow jersey Hayter even further back.
When the race hit the final climb the four-man Dunbar group was still chasing the six-man Lopez group, at 1:20, with about 4km to go. Dunbar rode as hard as he could on the front of the chase group, as his team mate Rodriguez was much better placed overall. And with about 3km to go the Irishman’s work was done and he rode to the finish.
Lopez won the stage in a sprint at the top of the climb;
by two seconds from Antwan Tolhoek (Jumbo Visma), with James Piccoli (Israel
Start-Up Nation) in 3rd at six seconds.
Rodriguez did the
best he could after Dunbar had worked for him and went on to take 7th on the
stage at 1:29. Hayter eventually finished in 12th at 2:23 and Dunbar was 35th
at 5:13.
Lopez took the
race lead going into today’s stage 4, by 20 seconds from Tolhoek, with Julen
Amezqueta (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) in
3rd at 55 seconds.
Rodriguez was
best placed of the Ineos Grenadiers riders after yesterday’s stage, in 4th
overall at 1:40. Hayter dropped from yellow to 9th overall at 2:13 and Dunbar
was 29th overall at 8:18 going into today’s fourth stage of five.
Topics
