Eddie Dunbar, third left, looks to be in superb form ahead of the national championships next week and he proved that by spending much of today's second stage of the Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc up the road in the day's nine-man break.
By Brian Canty
Eddie Dunbar enjoyed a very good day on stage two of the Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc today as he made the breakaway that stayed away for much of the second stage.
The Axeon Hagens Berman rider did lose time and was 32nd across the line, 12:51 behind stage winner Harm Vanhoucke of Lotto-Soudal who took the yellow jersey from overnight leader Alexis Guerin (Blagnac Velo Sport).
The former is now 32nd overall at 13:01 and will have plenty more chances to get up the road in the days ahead.
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The second stage of the race took the riders 118 kilometres from Barby to Les Deserts and after three early climbs there was a climb (though somehow uncategorised) before the day’s major pull up to Les Deserts.
Dunbar and his team rode very well in superb conditions -a welcome change to the wind and rain that battered the field yesterday.
The action was furious from the drop of the flag and almost immediately eight riders went clear with two more trying to get across.
Axeon Hagens Berman had no rider in that original move but there were plenty more teams without a man there so the onus wasn’t entirely on them to do much of the pace-setting.
Obviously feeling strong, Dunbar attacked the bunch and screamed across to the break on his own and by the time he bridged the gap to the bunch was over a minute.
The Blagnac team of race leader Alexis Guerin did much of the driving but Dunbar and his eight fellow escapees didn’t hang around and their margin went to 1’30” before Roux (CR4C) took flight and went off the front of the break alone.
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However, he didn’t last too long and he was back in the break before too long.
Incidentally, that break featured Julien Roux (CR4C), Hugo Pigeon, Jordan Sarrou (CCF), Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie), Pierre Luc Perichon (Fortuneo Vital Concept), Robbie Hucker (Avanti-ISOWhey), Remi Aubert, Emilien Viennet (CC Etupes) and Dunbar (Axeon Hagens Berman).
Grellier and Pigeon were distanced as the pace ramped up, a clear indication the bunch were closing in.
The next big split occurred when some 19 riders broke off the front of the bunch with the pain peloton 40” back at the first time check.
For Axeon Hagens Berman, Dunbar and Tao Geoghegan Hart were present while there was also representation from the big guns like Lotto-Soudal, BMC and Fortuneo-VitalConcept.
The break was eventually reabsorbed by the chasing 19 but the yellow jersey wasn’t there.
Rabobank had four men so they set a blistering tempo but the front two groups eventually merged, leaving 40+ riders to battle it out for the stage.
Nans Peters of CCF took flight and went for a long one but the bunch weren’t having it and he was eventually reabsorbed, though Lucas Papillon (CR4C) did give him a helping hand for a spell.
Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Soudal) was next to try his luck inside the final 10 kilometres and the 19 year-old Belgian pulled out enough of a gap to celebrate a career-best win.
Dunbar's teammate Geoghegan-Hart was fifth today and is just 32 seconds off the race lead.
Tomorrow’s stage takes the riders 123 kilometres from Chambery to Modane and there are two categorised climbs, the latter at Aussois five kilometres from the finish which reaches 1500 metres.
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