Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) has returned to the peloton today, some two months after crashing on the opening day of the season and being forced onto the sidelines with a broken bone in his hand.
Dunbar recently told stickybottle he had trained hard, and retained his condition, with six weeks of training on the home trainer before being able to return to the open roads once the hand injury - sustained at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in early February - had fully heeled.
The Irishman was in action today on the opening stage of Itzulia Basque Country, which was won by Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) from Mauro Schmid (Soudal-Quick Step) and Jon Aberasturi (Trek-Segafredo).
The 165.4km stage from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Labastida featured the 7.1km cat 2 climb of Opakua shortly after the start, which made for an aggressive opening phase of the stage. Three riders - Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-Sámic), Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) managed to forge clear and gained three minutes.
Advertisement
Related News
However, with teams like Alpecin-Deceuninck, Ineos Grenadiers, Soudal-QuickStep, Jumbo-Visma and Astana Qazaqstan all keen to bring them back, they were inevitably reeled in with about 30km to go.
That eventually paved the way for a sprint from a reduced bunch, won by Hayter and with Ireland's Dunbar also in the bunch, placing 79th on the stage on the same time as the winner. Dunbar will look to test himself, and get some valuable miles in the legs this week, as part of a Team Jayco AlUla team that also includes Simon Yates.
The race continues tomorrow with a 193.8km stage from Viana to Leitza. It features a four climbs in the final 70km, including an 11.1km cat 2 - at just 3.1 per cent - which is crested 5km from the finish, with that 5km downhill.
