Eddie Dunbar has completed his first stage race of the year with a solid enough ride in the TT at Etoile de Bessèges. The five-stage season-opener came to an end today with a 10.6km race against the clock from Alès to Alès l'Ermitage.
While the course was marked by a 2.6km climb with an average gradient of 5.8 per cent, it was still the powerful TT riders who prevailed; Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) taking the victory.
The TT world champion claimed his first won of the season by seven seconds from stage 1 winner Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), with race leader Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) 3rd at 10 seconds.
Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers), who climbed well on the uphill finish yesterday to place 15th on the stage, was 1:08 down today on his team mates winning time; placing 50th of the 128-rider field. He finished the race in 91st overall at 21:56.
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The 25-year-old Irishman was confined by team duties for much of the race though the Ineso Grenadiers team leader, Richard Carapaz, crashed on stage 3 and did not start today's final stage.
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The overall victory went to Thomas, who had taken the race lead after winning Friday's stage 3, just 24 hours after his Cofidis team mate Bryan Coquard claimed stage 2.
Thomas ended the race the overall winner by 16 seconds from Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost). Yesterday's impressive winner of the queen stage, 22-year-old Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) was 3rd overall at 32 seconds and having won Tour de l'Avenir last year, the Norwegian seems to have taken another step up.
