Eddie Dunbar has taken overall victory at the Tour of Hungary, even though he lost the final stage win right on the line today.
The Irishman, who rode a fantastic final climb to the summit finish, was caught and passed by 20-year-old Italian Antonio Tiberi (Trek-Segafredo) in the final 50 metres of the 184km stage to Gyöngyös-Kékestető.
Even deep into the last 500 metres Dunbar looked like he had the stage and the final overall in the bag. In the end, however, while Dunbar lost the stage to the fast-finishing Tiberi, he was still 2nd on the day. And that was enough for the Irish rider to secure the GC win as Tiberi had lost time earlier this week.
The first four stages in the five-stage race all came down to bunch sprints. It meant most of the fancied climbers started today's final stage all equal on time; some 26 seconds down on race leader, and double stage winner, Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep Alpha Vinyl).
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That general classification going into today's stage meant the final climb - some 12.km with an average gradient of 5.6 per cent - was always going to decide the final general classification.
After the early breakaway had been caught today, Bora-hansgrohe took it up on the front on the final climb, riding for their GC man Patrick Konrad. However, with about 4.5km to go it was Ben Turner of Ineos Grenadiers who came to the front with Dunbar in his wheel.
Turner then did an amazing jump to split what remained of the main field to pieces and set up his 25-year-old team mate for a big attack as the finish line got nearer.
Dunbar jumped very hard on the final climb today with 1.9km to go after Turner had really strung out the bunch. By the time Turner swung off and Dunbar attacked the group was down to just 10 or 12 riders.
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When Dunbar attacked he opened a very big gap immediately and none of the riders left in the group was willing or able to respond to the acceleration.
From that point Dunbar continued to power away out front alone, though Tiberi eventually put in a very big effort to try and catch Dunbar, and did so. Dunbar began to look laboured in the final 500m, though Tiberi had judged his effort to perfection; finishing really strongly as Dunbar tied up.
Tiberi just about overtook his Irish rival and beat him to the stage victory by two seconds. However, while Dunbar's heart was broken on the line for the stage win he still took the GC victory.
That is the second victory of his career after also winning the overall at Coppi e Bartali in March. It comes as the Irish rider was not picked for the Giro by Ineos Grenadiers and after being linked with a move to BikeExchange-Jayco or Jumbo-Visma.
More to come.
