Eddie Dunbar was in action today for Ineos Grenadiers on the opening stage of Ruta del Sol, losing time on a day when the early breakaway survived to fight for stage honours and the classification jerseys.
An eight-man breakaway was allowed to gain a whopping 15 minutes on the peloton on the 200.7km stage from Ubrique to Iznájar. And though that gap was down to about 1:30 by the time the breakaway reached the final 1.5km climb to the finish, it was to prove enough.
Rune Herregodts (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) sprinted in from the breakaway to win the stage from Stephen Bassett (Human Powered Health) and Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH). A total of six riders from the breakaway survived, with British rider Mark Christian (EOLO-Kometa) placing 6th at 18 seconds and the peloton finishing just behind him.
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Alessandro Covi (23) of UAE Team Emirates jumped from the remains of the bunch on the finishing climb to gain some valuable seconds just days after winning Vuelta Murcia. He finished in 7th place today, 31 seconds behind the winner and six seconds clear of the 40 riders left in the main field.
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Dunbar (25), who was confined to team duties today, finished in 73rd place at 1:33. His Ineos Grenadiers team placed three riders in what remained of the peloton; new US signing Magnus Sheffield (19), Carlos Rodriguez (21) and Jhonatan Narváez (23) all in that group for the British team.
The five-stage race continues tomorrow with a 150.6km stage from Archidona to Alcalá la Real. There are five cat 2 or 3 climbs and an uphill finish on a 3.4km climb averaging 6.3 per cent gradient and with a final kilometre of 11.5 per cent.
