Eddie Dunbar Vuelta plans on track after Pologne performance

*Tim Merlier wins the final stage, with Eddie Dunbar holding his general classification position on the final day at Tour de Pologne*

Eddie Dunbar's plans to go to La Vuelta and build on his breakthrough 7th place at Giro d'Italia are very much on the tracks after he wrapped up 7th place overall at Tour de Pologne today. It was the Team Jayco AlUla rider's first outing since the Italian Grand Tour in May and he looks like his level is high, with some further room to improve in coming weeks.

Dunbar now has the benefit of his first ever long altitude camp in his legs, as well as a solid rider in Poland over seven stages, and is now very well positioned to go to La Vuelta, where he will be on the hunt for a stage and a general classification ride.

He perhaps lacked a little punched in Poland, especially onstage 2 when he was well positioned to follow the move of Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates). As those two went forward - taking 1st and 2nd on the stage - Dunbar slipped back a little in the group and placed 8th at four seconds.

However, it was notable that he did a solid TT rider yesterday and emerges from this race in 7th, which was a much better performance that his first races back in action pre-Giro after not racing for quite some time. He will not hope to recover after Poland and put the final touches to his Vuelta form.

Dunbar will go into the Spanish Grand Tour without the crash interruption that undermined his Giro preparation and he can hopefully find another gear, or at least be stronger in the vital final week.

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Today's stage 7 in Poland - some 166.6km from Zabrze to Kraków - ended in a bunch sprint, with Tim Merlier (Soudal QuickStep) taking victory from Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team)

Race leader Mohorič went into today's final stage equal on time with 2nd place Almeida but managed to take a one-second time bonus at an intermediate sprint and so won the race by one second. Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) was 3rd at 17 seconds.

Ryan Mullen (Bora-hansgrohe) placed 24th on today's stage and now moves on to Glasgow to represent Ireland in the Worlds, in the road race on Sunday and TT next week. His team mate, Sam Bennett, left the Tour de Pologne early in favour of preparing for the Worlds, which Dunbar has opted to miss.