Eddie Dunbar has had a week to remember riding for the Axeon Hagens Berman team at the Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc (2.2) as his team took two stage wins, the team prize and finished second on GC.
By Brian Canty
Eddie Dunbar completed one of the best stage races of his career yesterday when he finished the five-day Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc in south east France.
The U23 national road race champion may have been down on general classification - in 23rd place at 25:57 - but having spent three of the four road stages up the road in breakaways and clocked a superb time against the clock on the penultimate day, it was a performance that augers very well.
On yesterday’s final stage, the plan for his Axeon Hagens Berman team was to try and get Tao Geoghegan-Hart the overall win.
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And on the brutally hard 130-kilometre stage from Moutiers to Cluses they road super-aggressive to try and put overnight race leader Enrico Mas (Klein Constantia) under pressure.
Their savage pace-setting on the early climbs resulted in the race really breaking up and eventually a break went clear, with Dunbar, Geoghegan-Hart and Saturday’s stage winner Adrien Costa all making the key 18-man move of the day.
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Enric Mas (Klein Constantia) had seven seconds to spare on going into the final stage but try as they might, they couldn’t shake the Spaniard.
Geoghegan-Hart won the stage, which featured the brutally hard climb of the Col du Colombiere as the final ascent of the day, but right on his wheel crossing the line was Mas who won overall by four seconds after time bonifications were added into the equation.
Dunbar was around 12 minutes down after emptying himself earlier in the stage and paying for the effort late on.
Axeon Hagens Berman did have further reason to celebrate when they won the team prize by over a minute from Fortuneo Vital Concept, a pro-continental outfit who will go to the Tour de France next month.
With two stage wins (Saturday and yesterday), second on the general classification, the team prize and plenty podiums during the week, Dunbar’s decision to ride for the team at the end of last year has already been vindicated.
It was their third team prize victory of the season along with the Volta ao Alentejo and the Redlands Bicycle Classic in April, while Geoghegan Hart's victory was the team's 16th overall of the year and its 11th in UCI competition.
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