Eddie Dunbar said the Irish team was dreaming of winning the rainbow jersey in the men's road race at the World Championships in Yorkshire on Sunday.
Sam Bennett is team leader after a fantastic season, including two recent stage wins at the Vuelta and four 2nd places.
Dunbar lined out for Ireland in the elite men's TT in Yorkshire today with Ryan Mullen.
The 54km test was won by the defending champion Rohan Dennis (Australia) in a time of 1:05:05.
That was a considerable 1:09 better than the runner-up; 19-year Remco Evenepoel winning elite silver for Belgium just 12 months after his junior TT and road race golds last year.
Dunbar's Team Ineso team mate Filippo Ganna (Italy) was third, another 46 seconds back.
Eddie Dunbar was 26th at 4:47 while Mullen, a former top 10 finisher, was 32nd at 5:16.
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Afterwards Dunbar said he felt his ride was a decent one and he was now thinking of the road race and a result for Ireland.
“I took a recovery period on the descents when I could. I think overall the performance was good, it was consistent effort," he said of his performance in the test.
“I was
happy with it. Obviously I was a good bit off the mark compared to the top
guys.
“But I’m
here to learn and try and get better at these types of efforts for the future
and I think I done that today.
“The
crowds were incredible today, there was a lot of Irish flags out there; in the
middle of Yorkshire where you wouldn’t expect to see them. So that was good.
“I’m
looking forward to the road race now on Sunday. We have a really strong team.
“We
have six really motivated guys and I think we can do something on Sunday and
hopefully dream about the rainbows for someone.”
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