Eddie Dunbar on the attack during powerful display at Ruta del Sol | Video

Ireland's Eddie Dunbar put in a very strong performance today on stage 3 of Ruta del Sol (Photo: Nathalie Teyssier)

Eddie Dunbar made the
front group on stage 3 of Ruta de Sol today after the main field split to pieces
in the final hour. His young Ineos Grenadiers team mate Magnus Sheffield (19)
took victory after taking the initiative with a powerful move with 1km to go.

Dunbar finished just
inside the top 20 but had put in a powerful display, repeatedly going off the
front at the pointy end of the undulating 153.2km stage from Lucena to Otura. His rider
today followed a very strong performance yesterday when he was on the front
working for the team, with Alessandro
Covi (23) of UAE Team Emirates
winning the day and taking the race lead.

Today,
as the last remaining breakaway riders were being
caught on an uncategorised climb with
33km to go, Irishman Dunbar was in a small five-man group that got across to the last of the leaders ahead of what was left
of the main field.

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And
when there was a regrouping of the remains of the peloton, Simon Yates
(BikeExchange Jayco) lit it up with a big attack. A small group went after him, with Dunbar
again present in that move.

In
that new breakaway group, of just four, with Dunbar and Yates were Miguel Angel
Lopez (Astana) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious).

They began working and, sensing
the danger, some riders in the remains of the peloton about 15 seconds behind
them, jumped across. The breakaway swelled to seven as Mauri
Vansevenant (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) and Cristián Rodríguez (TotalEnergies) all arrived.

In the group just
behind them – numbering about 20 riders, including the yellow jersey Covi –
Movistar and Bora-hansgrohe were working on the front, with the gap at 13
seconds with 26km to go. The catch was made with just over 22km to go and after
Dunbar had been on the attack for over 10km.

However, after catching his breath for a couple of kilometres, Dunbar went on the attack again and this time was chased by yellow jersey Covi, with the rest of the 25-rider group in a line behind them.

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While the attacks
continued for a period, Bahrain Victorious took it up on the front and kept the
pace high as Landa and Damiano Caruso drove it until deep into the final 5km.

With about 3.5km
to go it was Dunbar who was again on the front, keeping the pace up in the
hopes one of his team mates could take the stage win. As Dunbar continued to
press on front, with about 2.5km to go there was a crash in the group involving
two of his team mates; Jhonatan Narváez and Carlos Rodriguez.

Dunbar peeled off
the front with about 2km to go, with Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) then
attacking. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) tried to close the gap,
with the front group on his wheel. When he was unable to get across to Buchmann
it was Magnus Sheffield that attacked the group and powered across to the German dangling off the front by just a
couple of seconds with 1.2km to go.

Sheffield went
past Buchmann, on a slight incline through the red kite with 1km to go, and
with a raw power effort he pulled out a gap on the group.

Once his advantage grew a little, as the line neared, he looked assured of victory. And while he eased back to celebrate his win on the line, and so the chasers closed right up on him, he had impressively taken his first pro victory three seconds ahead of the 16-rider chasing group. Simon Clarke (Israel - Premier Tech) won the sprint for 2nd, with Stan Dewulf (AG2R Citroën) in 3rd.

Dunbar was just a few seconds behind that group, in 19th place, but was credited with the same time - due to the crashes in the finale that split the group - after a very strong performance in the last hour of racing.

Yellow jersey Covi retained the race lead today as he was one of the riders to finish just three seconds behind Sheffield; the young Italian placing 7th despite having no team mates in the front group in the finale.

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