Eddie Dunbar will get his 2022 season off to an early start this year as the Irishman is in stage race action in France the week after next.
The 25-year-old is part of the Ineos Grenadiers line-up that will take on the five-stage Etoile de Bessèges, which gets underway next Wednesday week, February 2nd, in the French department of Gard.
Dunbar has confirmed he will start the race and he is part of a provisional team line-up that looks, by far, the strongest in the race. It includes Richard Carapaz, Laurens de Plus, Filippo Ganna, Daniel Martínez, Ben Tulett and Michał Kwiatkowski.
While the race is littered with short climbs, it is generally an event that produces some sprints from a reduced peloton, with the general classification sorted on an uphill finish and in the TT.
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This year the queen stage is on the fourth day and features a challenging final climb. That stage takes the riders some 145km from Saint-Hilaire-de-Brethmas to Mont Bouquet; a 4.6km cat 1 incline with an average gradient of 9.1 per cent to finish on.
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Once order is put on the general classification by that climb, the following day sees the TT on the final day of action. The riders will tackle an 11km course, from Alès to Alès l'Ermitage, with a 2.8km climb averaging 5.8km to conclude.
Dunbar had a difficult time at the end of last season as he was due to ride La Vuelta but contracted Covid-19 just before Vuelta a Burgos in early August. That event was to act as a tune-up for La Vuelta, but Dunbar missed both races after his Covid-19 positive test.
And while he went on to ride the Worlds and National Road Championships, he crashed out of the breakaway at the nationals and abandoned, before finishing his season with Milano Torino and Il Lombardia.
Now entering his eighth season as a pro rider, and the final year of his current contract with Ineos Grenadiers, he will be looking to stay upright and work towards repeating the ride he did at Tour de Suisse last year. He placed 12th overall in that race and won the young rider classification while riding out of his socks to ensure team mate Carapaz won the race.
Dunbar has in the past ridden very well in early season stage races; taking 6th overall at Tour de La Provence in 2020 and 7th in the same race the previous year. He was also 5th overall in Volta ao Alentejo in 2017.
