Eddie Dunbar (leading) on his way to 3rd overall in France at the weekend; Dylan O'Brien is a little further back the group, also in the yellow of AC Bisontine (Photo: Laurine Philippe)
By Brian Canty
Eddie Dunbar has finished his first race with the AC Bisontine team in France in third place overall after yesterday’s stage 2 time-trial and concluding road stage at the Tour Nivernais Morvan in central France.
The O'Leary's Stone Kanturk CC junior rider was optimistic about his chances of moving up the standings going into today's the split stages yesterday as he told stickybottle on Saturday night following the first stage.
He felt strong enough to challenge for the win, though felt frustrated at what he saw as the negative riding of the French riders as he succeeded in breaking up the race and pulling the winning breakaway clear with a characteristic strong and aggressive ride.
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He was one of the main animators of that opening stage but had to settle for eighth on the day, in the same time as his 11 fellow breakaway men.
That escape got clear just 20km into the hilly 105km stage and by the finish it had three minutes on the peloton, with Dunbar riding full of confidence up ahead and going on the attack alone inside the final 10km though being caught with 3km remaining, two 1km climbs in the latter stages not helping him pull away.
Dunbar moved up to third overall following yesterday morning's time trial, where he finished eighth. And he would stay there after the completion of the third stage, which was won in a bunch sprint by Frenchman Nicolas Legras (LPC).
The 2013 Junior Tour winner had been hoping the climbs on the final 86km stage would split the race in his favour but that was not to be.
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Dunbar's team mate Dylan O'Brien also finished safely in the main bunch having done likewise yesterday. O'Brien was 29th in the morning time-trial and is clearly in good form after winning the two-day Tour of Connacht riding against the A1s.
On that occasion he made his way into the winning escape on stage 1 and claimed 2nd place on the concluding time trial stage to win the race overall from Dunbar, both of whom were riding on the Munster Sensa team for the weekend.
The final podium at the Tour du Nivernais Morvan junior stage race in central France, with Eddie Dunbar in the yellow jersey of French team AC Bisontine and rounding out the race in 3rd place overall.
April 5th & 6th: Tour Nivernais Morvan
Stage 2 Time Trial, 9.5km
1 LOUVET Louis CC 12mins 45.14secs (Avg 44.706 kmph)
2 ERMENAULT Corentin CCNO @0.79secs
3 LEGRAS Nicolas LPC @12
4 TONDEREAU Pierre CRCen @16
5 PFRIMMER Arnaud CCE @16
6 PLANCKAERT Emiel AVIA @18
7 PARET PEINTRE Aurelien VCA @18
8 DUNBAR Edward ACB @22
9 CRASS Steff AVIA @26
10 PATTYN Jeroen ZLCTM @30
11 GAREL Adrien CCNO @30
12 DEGUEURCE Joffrey ACB @34
13 DEPOORTER Maxime AVIA @35
14 RASCLE Teddy CCE @35
15 VANACKER Bjarne ZLCTM @36
29 O’BRIEN Dylan ACB @57
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