How Eddie Dunbar compared to UAE GC rivals on new Pinarello set-up

Eddie Dunbar in his first TT action for his new team and on the new Pinarello set-up, with the Irishman losing time at UAE Tour (Photo: Luca Bettini-Cor Vos)

Eddie Dunbar has taken to the start line of his first TT on his new Pinarello set-up and has shed time to his general classification rivals at UAE Tour after dodging something of a bullet yesterday.

Dunbar, who has changed teams over the winter, from Team Jayco AlUla to Pinarello Q36.5, was in fantastic form against the watch last year. He produced arguably the best TTs of his career, including an 8th place finish at Critérium du Dauphiné (2.UWT).

However, he was unable to reproduce that kind of performance today, shedding significant time in the 12.2km TT to Hudayriyat Island. He is perhaps not yet used to his new set-up, without having dialled his position, or his TT performance, in recent months.

The one silver lining is that while today's stage winner, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep), put 1:11 into Dunbar, which is really significant over 13 minutes of racing, the other GC men didn't make the same kind of gains on the Irishman.

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Dunbar finished 76th, of the 146-rider field, some 1:11 down on Evenepoel. Irish TT champion Ryan Mullen (NSN Cycling Team) placed 66th at 1:05. The time Dunbar lost to his probable/possible GC rivals is as follows:

  • Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep) 1:11
  • Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step) 37 seconds
  • Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) 37 seconds
  • Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) 36 seconds
  • Wilco Kelderman (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) 35 seconds
  • Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 35 seconds
  • Ben O'Connor (Team Jayco AlUla) 29 seconds
  • Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 29 seconds
  • Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) 24 seconds
  • David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ United) 15 seconds
  • Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 7 seconds

Of those 70 riders Dunbar was faster than, it is hard to pick out an obvious genuine GC contender. However, this is an early season race and young riders are coming into the pro ranks, and developing more rapidly than ever. That means the GC picture is likely to be influenced by other riders not listed here.

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Dunbar, riding his second stage race of the year after 35th overall at AlUla Tour last month, has always performed better on the climbs than in the TT, especially short sharp pan flat TTs, like the course today. And he will get another shot as soon as tomorrow, with the first of two uphill finishes.

The 183km stage finishes on Jebel Mobrah, a 13.2km climb averaging 8.1km. The man who won yesterday's stage, and took the leader's jersey, del Toro, finished off the pace today. He now trails new race leader Evenepoel by 32 seconds.

That is not an insurmountable gap, far from, but it means del Toro cannot win this race on time bonuses alone, even if he wins the two uphill finishes to come. And so he must drop Evenepoel - likely meaning attacking him - which should make for exciting, and very hard, racing to come.

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