Eddie Dunbar puts in best TT ride on Giro but loses GC places | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Eddie Dunbar looking a bit despondent after his TT ride today, but this is a Giro d'Italia where he got his chance, finally, and took it with both hands to prove his Grand Tour credentials*

Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) has taken his best result today of any of the three TTs on Giro d'Italia but that has not prevented him slipping a couple of places in the overall standings. Some of the Irishman's rivals in what was a very tight top 10 on general classification put in fantastic rides today to improve their positions. And that meant Dunbar was overtaken by a couple of riders in the final overall.

Indeed, he saved himself from dropping to 8th overall by just one second, though he still has to be very happy with his performance on this race. He finally got his chance to ride a Grand Tour - and indeed lead a team - and the 26-year-old from Cork has definitely proven his Grand Tour credentials. He rose to as high as 4th in the standings in the middle of the third week of the race and though he slipped a little in the last few days, he is now on course to finish 7th overall tomorrow in Rome.

His compatriot, Irish TT champion Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), has also suffered in these last few days, but only after proving one of the men of Giro 2023, with his relentless aggression and his win on stage 8, after a 50km solo breakaway.

Today, Healy (22) placed 26th in the TT, some 4:02 down on winner Primož Roglič (Jumbo Visma), who was king today. The Slovenian won the stage and also took the maglia rosa for Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). Roglič was best in the 18.6km mountain TT to Monte Lussari, by a whopping 40 seconds from runner-up Thomas.

*Roglič, always with plenty of drama around him, won the stage and took the race lead, showing he was definitely the strongest on Giro 2023*

That winning margin would have been much closer to a minute but for Roglič suffering a mechanical - when his chain jumped off after he hit a ridge on the road - and was forced to a standstill. That mishap is the latest in a series of incidents that tends to follow Jumbo Visma, though today they got away with it because Roglič was so good.

He came into the Giro undercooked - having done very little racing - and has improved through the three weeks. Indeed, he remains so strong as the race draws to a close that a Tour de France ride may well be on the cards, where he and team mate Jonas Vingegaard could again seek to work over Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).

For Dunbar, his TT ride resulted in 19th place on the stage, some 3:03 down on winner Roglič. That compares to 24th in the stage 1 TT and 22nd in the stage 9 race against the clock. The Irishman - who has ridden his heart out during this race - slipped from 5th to 7th overall today.

He was overtaken by Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Thomas's climbing domestique, Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers). Pinot was 5th on the stage while Arensman placed 8th. Dunbar is now in 7th overall, just one second ahead of former maglia rosa Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM), who has done an incredible job to remain in the top 10 overall and placed 9th in today's TT.

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Dunbar began today's stage just 42 seconds down on 4th placed overall, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious), who leapfrogged one place over the Irishman on yesterday's stage. Today Caruso finished 4th on the stage - a surprisingly good ride - beating Dunbar by 2:08. Pinot and Arensman beat Dunbar in today's TT by 2:04 and 1:45 respectively, with Leknessund beating the Irishman by 1:14.

While slipping three places in the general classification in two days may seem like a disappointing end of the Giro for Dunbar, 7th place is a great result and one that he and his team would have taken before the start.

Dunbar is new to Team Jayco AlUla and also had a crash-hit start to the season, missing almost all of his build-up races before this Giro. He was signed by the team after more than four seasons at Team Sky/Ineos Grenadiers where he could not even get a start in a Grand Tour, save for the 2019 Giro. In this race, he needed to show he could climb with the best, string a performance together of three weeks and also absorb the pressure of leading a team. He has done all of those.

And now with a hard Grand Tour in his legs - and with the experience of going head-to-head with the best also in the bank, he should improve further, including having that extra bit of endurance deep into the third week. He will hopefully take the next step in his career at La Vuelta later this year.

More to come.