Ireland's Eddie Dunbar has held firm on Giro d'Italia - as some of his rivals have faltered or fallen by the wayside - and moved up to 9th overall today. It is the first time the 25-year-old Corkonian has been in the top 10 overall in a Grand Tour.
And while Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) knows the race is not yet at the halfway point, he has negotiated some tricky stages already, including two TTs, with plenty of climbing to come that will better suit him. He is now in a great position to relaunch his Grand Tour career with a strong result in the final overall by the time the riders reach Rome the Sunday after next.
Dunbar had only ridden one Grand Tour before this year - making his debut in the 2019 edition of the Italian Grand Tour for Team Sky, now Ineos Grenadiers. However, he was never selected again by the British team.
Advertisement
He moved to Jayco AlUla during last winter to take up a role as Grand Tour team leader with the Australian outfit. The team hopes to turn him into a Grand Tour challenger over the next couple of seasons. So far, the first part of that process is going according to plan, with Dunbar looking strong on this Giro and nicely poised in the general standings.
Today's stage 10 - some 196km from Scandiano to Viareggio - was run off in sodden conditions, with a three-mam breakaway surviving. Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) claimed victory from Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech) and Alessandro De Marchi (Team Jayco AlUla).
It was the ninth Grand Tour stage win of Cort's career, but the first at the Giro and followed six at La Vuelta and two at the Tour de France. He became the second Dane on this Giro to complete his set of stage wins at all three Grand Tours, with Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) joining that exclusive club on winning stage 6 of the race into Naples last week.
Related News
Today Cort's three-man group finished 51 seconds up on the first section of the main field, on a day when the peloton split in two. The second part of the bunch was 11:19 down by the finish. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) was the best placed rider overall this morning - at 11th - to be caught in that second group after a crash just after the halfway point. He has now fallen down the standings to 20th overall.
Aside from Dunbar gaining one placing from Vine, the race leader after Sunday's TT, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) did not start today after being diagnosed with Covid-19. Furthermore, Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe), who started the stage 7th overall, was forced out today; abandoning after being dropped early due to illness.
Those developments for the three riders ahead of Dunbar after Sunday's TT meant he moved up three places in the overall to 9th. Furthermore, Israel-Premier Tech's team leader, Domenico Pozzovivo, was also seen as a top 10 contender but abandoned today; one less rider for Dunbar to be concerned about.
Today the Irishman finished in 27th place, in the middle of the 44-rider group 51 seconds down on the stage winner. Fellow Irish rider Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), who took a memorable stage win on Saturday, finished in 105th today, in the group 11:19 down.
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) wore the race leader's maglia rosa today have taken it by default from Evenepoel, though the 36-year-old Tour de France 2018 winner has looked very strong on this race and is now a favourite for overall victory.
He leads by two seconds from Primož Roglič, the Jumbo-Visma rider who is now perhaps the most fancied to win. Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), who won the race in 2021 and is probably second favourite now, is 3rd overall at just five seconds.
Ireland's Dunbar is 2:32 down in 9th, on the same time as Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) in 10th, with 11 stages still to come. Tomorrow's stage 11 is some 219km from Camaiore to Tortona.
Though there are only cat 3 and cat 4 climbs on the route, and the final one is crested 44km from the finish, the expected inclement weather and accumulating fatigue may serve up a more active race than the profile suggest.
