Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) went into today's penultimate stage at Tour de Pologne - a 16.6km TT - still well in the hunt in the general classification but having crashed hard during the finish of yesterday's stage.
However, while the TT is not exactly the Irish rider's favoured event, he put up a spirited performance today and looks to have done enough to take his first general classification result since his fine 7th place overall at Giro d'Italia in May.
Dunbar began today's stage 6 in Katowice 6th overall, some 26 seconds down on race leader, and stage 2 winner, Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious); the Irishman equal on time with six riders, but with the TT always going to separate them.
Today's test was won by Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal-QuickStep) by a big margin of 13 seconds from João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) and Giro runner-up Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), who was at 14 seconds. Race leader Mohorič put in a stout defence of the yellow jersey, placing 11th at 25 seconds.
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And that result was enough to ensure Mohorič kept the race lead, though 2nd placed overall Almeida closed the 12 seconds gap to him, drawing equal on time, but with Mohorič still in yellow. Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) is 3rd overall at 14 seconds.
Dunbar placed 28th in the TT, at 51 seconds, and that now leaves him a very solid 7th overall at 52 seconds with just tomorrow's final stage, probably for the sprinters, into Kraków to come. Ryan Mullen (Bora-hansgrohe), the Irish TT champion, was 21st today at 42 seconds while his team mate, Sam Bennett, has left the race ahead of the road race at the Worlds in Glasgow on Sunday.
