Eddie Dunbar in the Giro stage 20 breakaway with eventual winner Pello Bilbao of Astana.
Eddie Dunbar has once again shown great courage, with the legs to match, on the Giro d’Italia; going in the breakaway on stage 20 of the race today.
Though most of
the field, even the big favourites, is on its last legs; Dunbar has excelled
during the past two days.
He finished
yesterday with the general classification men on a hilly stage for the first
time on the Giro.
And today he went
clear a breakaway on what was arguably the queen stage of the race.
The 22-year-old
may have been caught and distanced by the general classification rides on the
final climb, but on another day he may have made it all the way.
It was another
fantastic ride by Dunbar; not just because he was so physically strong but
because of his absolute lack of fear.
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The longest race
he had ever ridden before the Giro was the 10-stage Tour de l’Avenir. Yet he
thought nothing of going on the attack from a long way out today with 19 stages
of a Grand Tour already in his legs.
And with this
race now under his belt, he should come out of it a different rider and with
years of progression still ahead of him.
Conor Dunne (Israel Cycling Academy) is nearly there too;
just that final leg to come and he has finished his second Grand Tour.
The Irish champion was 131st today in a large group some 40:55 down; surviving well all the way.
There was no change at the top of the standings; Richard Carapaz (Movistar) still leading the race by 1:54 from Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida).
However, after coming 2nd today Mikel Landa (Movistar) has jumped one place to 3rd at the expense of Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma), who lost almost one minute on all of his rivals.
How Dunbar’s stage went
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While Eddie
Dunbar is such an exciting prospect for the future, today he was very much focused
on the job at hand.
He went clear in
a breakaway on the opening climb; the 20km Cima Campo. It began straight after
the start of the 194km stage from Feltre to Croce D’Aune-Monte Avena.
In that group was
Andrey Amador (Movistar), Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli), Damiano
Caruso (Bahrain-Merida), Dario Cataldo and Pello Bilbao (both Astana).
Also present was Tanel Kangert (EF Education First) along with Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Ama Ghebreigzabier (Dimension Data), Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb), Eros Capecchi (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott).
By the time Dunbar’s breakaway began the 18.9km Passo Manghen they had 2:40 on what was already a much reduced peloton.
Masnada would attack the breakaway and spent a long
period of the stage up ahead alone.
The escape group he left was then caught by what remained
of the peloton; a very small select group containing the top general
classification men.
As the riders raced down the mountain, the group swelled
to a small peloton, from which a second breakaway group would go, which Dunbar
was in.
In that second breakaway with the Irishman were Kangert, Ghebreigzabier, Nieve, Bilbao, Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and king of the mountains Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo).
Over the final two climbs of the day, from about
20km out, attacks in the general classification group whittled down the leaders’
advantage until they were caught on the last ascent.
Dunbar then lost contact as Bilbao stayed with the
favourites on the climb and won the stage. He did so after his Astana team mate
Miguel Angel Lopez had crashed with a spectator.
In the end Bilbao won it from Mikel Landa (Movistar),
with another of the breakaway men Ciccone in 3rd place.
Dunbar lost 1:59 in the final few kilometres and finished
in 19th place, aiding his Team Ineos team mate Pavel Sivakov in the closing
kilometres and ensuring he retained 10th place.
The Irish rider gained one place in the general
classification to 21st with just tomorrow’s 17km TT in Verona to come.
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