Eddie Dunbar makes the cut in Austria, now very much in contention | Video

Eddie Dunbar is making his international comeback away from the Tour's bright lights and is now showing some good form (Photo: Luis Angel Gomez-SCA-Cor Vos)

Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) may be making his international racing return far away from the bright lights of the Tour de France but the Irish rider is going about his business very solidly at the Tour of Austria.

Though his team recently told stickybottle that Dunbar would go to Austria only get used to the pressures of racing again, after a long crash-related lay-off, he has won the Irish TT title since then and also road well in the road race at the championships in Limerick.

And now in Austria Dunbar looks like he is very much at the races as he made the 24-rider front group today after some late, short and sharp, climbing on the 184.5km stage from Maria Taferl to Steyr.

That result today has moved Dunbar up to 12th in the general classification, just 17 seconds behind race leader Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers), who claimed victory today and also took a 10-second time bonus to move into the leader's jersey.

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Ireland's Dunbar lost most of his time in the opening prologue TT, his first race against the watch since his Irish title win. In that 3km prologue TT in St Pölten on Tuesday, Dunbar placed 37th, just 11 seconds down on Cameron Rogers (Lidl-Trek Future Racing).

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The 19-year-old Australian put in a stunning performance over the short distance to beat former world TT champion, and reigning Italian champion, Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) into 2nd place by a single second.

On yesterday's first opening road stage, Dunbar's 22-year-old Italian team mate, Davide De Pretto, took the honours in a bunch sprint into Bad Tatzmannsdorf. Tomorrow's stage 3 sees the riders take on 153.1km from Schladming to St Johann Alpendorf.

If Dunbar is finding some form - and there are signs that is the case - he can do well tomorrow as a 16km climb, averaging 5.2 per cent, crested 35km from the finish, with the race then ending atop a 2.5km climb, which averages 6.5 per cent and could really suit Dunbar.

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