Eddie Dunbar had an unexpected setback in his Vuelta a España goal on Monday, weakening on the first mountain stage and conceding time to the other overall contenders.
The Corkman was with those riders until 4 kilometres to go on the day’s final climb of Arinsal in Andorra but then slipped out the back of that group. Defending champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) won the uphill sprint to the line ahead of Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and nine others.
The Belgian crashed seconds after the finish, missing a turn and colliding with a woman police officer who was standing among race officials and team staff. He suffered a cut to his head but appeared fine in post-race interviews.
Dunbar rolled in 2′37 back on a stage where he expected to remain with the leaders.
“It wasn’t my best day on the bike. I suffered a lot. I just tried limiting my losses, really,” he said. “Hopefully it might come good in the next few days.”
He finished seventh overall in this year’s Giro d’Italia and was targeting another top 10 overall in this race. It wasn’t immediately clear why he was below par, but his two crashes in Saturday’s opening team time trial may have been a factor.
He is also riding two Grand Tours in the same season for the first time in his career. Doing two three-week races in one season can make form difficult to predict and to perfect, which may explain why Giro d’Italia runner-up Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) also conceded time.
Like Dunbar he too was distanced by the other favourites, although he limited his losses to 47 seconds.
Dunbar is now 42nd overall, three minutes 32 seconds behind new race leader Evenepoel. 18 stages remain in the race and a high overall finish is not out of the question, but things will need to turn around before Thursday’s next summit finish in order to avoid further time losses.
Reflecting on the stage afterwards, the Jayco AlUla team leader said that his positioning in the group during the stage may have contributed to the fatigue.
“It is just tough. I think when you are one of the teams who were riding on the front today, it made it a lot easier [for their leaders] in the middle of the peloton. At the back the accelerations were hard and that builds up over a 150K stage. Maybe those guys were a bit fresher coming into the climb. I just don’t have the legs at the moment.”
The Giro d’Italia continues on Tuesday with an undulating 184.6km stage from Andorra la Vella to Tarragona. There are two third category climbs on a profile that is otherwise gradually downhill.
