Eddie Dunbar has ended Coppi e Bartali with
overall victory today, his first win as a professional cyclist. The result, by
far the best of his career, comes after multiple setbacks in recent seasons
when crashes and illness have halted his progress.
However, those now look like temporary setbacks
as the Cork rider has today taken the kind of win he can use as a springboard
to go on to even bigger and better things.
An interesting feature of this week’s race,
aside from Ineos Grenadiers riding for him, was just how strong the 25-year-old
Irishman looked. He appeared to be, by some margin, the strongest rider in the
race.
Today’s final stage went to the breakaway men,
with Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s Josef
Černý and Rémi Cavagna surviving out front to take a team 1-2.
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That the
breakaway men mopped up the time bonuses at the finish played into Dunbar’s
hands. He started the stage in the leader’s jersey, some nine seconds up on his
Ineos Grenadiers team mate Ben Tulett.
It appeared the only
way he could lose the race, barring major incident, was if Tulett claimed a
sprint win from a reduced group and took the 10-second time bonus. Though that
outcome was highly unlikely, it was nullified when the breakaway men survived to
share the spoils and the time bonuses.
Dunbar was enjoying this third stage today in the race leader’s jersey and never looked in any way under pressure from the moment he pulled it on after stage 2.
Today's 160km stage 5 into Cantagrillo included three laps of a finishing circuit with a 5.3km climb each lap. And while the field split to pieces behind the surviving breakaway men, Dunbar finished in the select group. He came over the line punching the air in celebration of his achievement.
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At one point, four of the 10 breakaway men went clear of the others and had a gap of more than nine minutes on what remained of the peloton with about 50km to go. That saw Omer Goldstein (Israel-Premier Tech), who was one of the four out front, become virtual race leader on the road as he had started the day 6:58 down on the Dunbar.
However, that gap came right down over the course of the remainder of the stage. In the end, Dunbar's group finished 4:23 down on Josef Černý and Rémi Cavagna in 1st and 2nd. Goldstein was 3rd at 14 seconds followed by Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), who was 4th at 46 seconds.
After those top four - the four riders who attacked the breakaway with over 50km to go - came four more of the original 10-man breakaway. Dunbar's group was sprinting for 9th place on the stage and numbered just 13 riders on the line, after another hard day of racing. The Irishman finished in 15th today, alongside his team mate Ben Tulett, to make sure of overall victory.
Dunbar rode a tactically smart race on the opening stage – and showcased his form – by attacking hard on the final climb of the day and riding clear. He was caught on the descent by Mauro Schmid (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl). Dunbar rode for time all the way to the line and though Schmid comfortably beat him to stage victory, the Irishman was in the driving seat in the GC.
He
had gained 14 seconds on the other favourites, including his team mates Tulett
and Ethan Hayter. And when Schmid could not get up the climbs the following day
and lost time, Dunbar moved into the race lead.
His position only came under threat when Tulett and Dunbar worked over the select group on the final climb of stage 3 and Tulett’s attack proved the successful one; the British 20-year-old powering clear to a solo stage win.
However,
Dunbar did enough behind his team mate to take 2nd and hold onto his race
leader’s jersey. Following that nervous moment, Dunbar’s team controlled the
race over the last two days and the Irishman ran out a comfortable winner in
the end.
More to come.
