Eddie Dunbar ‘undercooked’ but optimistic about Giro d’Italia challenge

He’s had a season disrupted by a fracture plus an extended period on the sidelines, but Eddie Dunbar starts the Giro d’Italia on Saturday convinced a top 10 overall finish may still be on the cards.

The Corkman finished ninth in the Tour de Romandie last weekend and feels he is coming into decent form at just the right time.

“Going by Romandie, going off the way I was feeling, if all the stars align and everything goes my way, I think it [top 10] is definitely a realistic ambition at the end of three weeks in Italy,” the 26 year old told The Irish Times this week. “But I am going in undercooked, in terms of the amount of racing I’ve done. If it gets to a point where I have to change the plan and go for stage wins, that’s okay, too. But I’m confident I can ride general classification and hopefully I can be at that pointy end of the race by the end of three weeks.”

Dunbar has long been seen as Ireland’s next big general classification hope, filling a void left by the retirement of Dan Martin in 2021. But while he has been a professional rider for several years, he has had few personal opportunities thus far. He was often required to ride for others during his four seasons with Team Sky/Ineos Grenadiers, and has only done one Grand Tour, the 2019 Giro d’Italia.

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Things began to change last year. He won the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali and the Tour de Hongrie, the first two victories of his pro career and, frustrated by non-selection for the Giro d’Italia, he signed a contract to move to the Jayco AlUla team as a designated leader.

[ Eddie Dunbar ninth overall in Switzerland with Megan Armitage taking third in Luxembourg ]

He’ll have the squad’s backing in the Giro, just as he did on the big climbing day in the Tour de Romandie. The goal is to ride as well as possible in Italy, then build on that for the future.

“Obviously there’s an excitement there,” he said. “There’s obviously an element of the unknown, of uncertainty there as well. Have I done this right? It’s only my second Grand Tour, so obviously it’s going to be a bit like that. But I think the team are confident. I’m confident. My coach is very happy with where I’m at. All I can do now is let the road decide and see what happens in the race.”

Dunbar’s injury means he has only done 13 days of racing this year, considerably less than some of his rivals. He was also limited to using a turbo trainer for several weeks while his hand fracture healed. His form in Romandie was encouraging, however, with ninth on race’s big summit finish and ninth overall showing things are moving in the right way.

It’s likely he won’t be in top shape at the start of the Giro, but he has fingers crossed that each passing day will nudge him in the right direction and that he will be flying in the final week.

“I don’t think the Giro is going to be won in the first week. It could certainly be lost, but I don’t think it’s going to be won,” he said. “So that gives guys who are a bit undercooked going into it a little bit of time to ride into it, to limit their losses in those first 10 to 14 days, then come good by the end.

“Hopefully I can be one of those who are going very well in that third week and bring back a bit of time, if I need to.”

The Giro d’Italia begins on Saturday with a flat 19.6 kilometre individual time trial to Ortona. Dunbar will lose time to the specialists there but things get hilly very, very quickly and he should start to move up the general classification.

“I am definitely under-raced probably going in, but we’ve made the best of that situation. The last few weeks getting Basque [the Tour of the Basque Country] in the legs, getting Romandie in the legs, I think it’s as good a place as I can be going into it.

“I’ve ticked all the boxes in terms of training. It’s obviously a bit of an unknown as to where I’m going to end up in a three week race. But I’ve done the work. It’s just about seeing where we go from here.”