Eddie Dunbar drops more time at Vuelta as his demoralising start to the race continues

Eddie Dunbar heads into Wednesday’s fifth stage of the Vuelta a España hoping to turn things around after a demoralising start to the race. The Corkman suffered his third time loss in four days at the Vuelta a España on Tuesday, crossing the line 1′33 behind the bunch sprint winner Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

Australian rider Groves tracked the Colombian Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates) inside the twisting final 500 metres and then swept past just before the line. The peloton was split into several different groups, partly due to a big crash inside the final 10 kilometres.

Dunbar’s Jayco-AlUla team indicated that he didn’t fall, but is still trying to recover after his two crashes during the stage one time trial. He had gone into the race in good form but has been affected by those impacts.

He started Wednesday’s stage to Burriana 42nd overall, 3′32 behind the ongoing race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), who won the race last year.

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Dunbar had finished seventh overall in the Giro d’Italia this year, his first time targeting the overall classification in a three-week Grand Tour. While his goal of equalling or bettering that will now be very hard to achieve after those two crashes and the related time loss, his team has said he will take things day-by-day for now.

Eighteen stages remain and if he comes good soon and is able to recoup some of the lost time with a long range attack, a top 10 overall may still be on the cards.

Race-specific targets aside, though, one big objective of riding the Vuelta was to get two Grand Tours in his legs this year in order to be stronger for 2024 and beyond.

Meanwhile, MTB rider Oisin O’Callaghan is chasing more good results in the upcoming fortnight after taking 9th in last Friday’s downhill race at the UCI World Cup in Vallnord Par Arinsal in Andorra.

The former world junior champion recorded a time of 2′49.283, less than three seconds off the winning mark of Frenchman Thibaut Daprela. He was marginally over two tenths of a second off a top five, which would put him on the podium at a World Cup.

“My race run was pretty smooth,” he said. “I didn’t risk too much. I rode smart, hit all my lines, conditions were pretty good for me. A little wind up top, but managed to keep it together.”

Although he took World Cup wins as a junior in 2020, his ninth place is a career best as an Elite rider. He is 20 years of age and is continuing to evolve and develop.

“Getting my first top 10 was a good day,” he acknowledged. “I’m slowly working my way up to the top of the Elite pack race by race, although it isn’t easy with there being no room for error. Being only 0.2 off the podium sucks but I also know it’s so close just need to keep pushing.”

Fellow Irishmen Ronan Dunne (Continental Nukeproof Factory Racing) and Jacob Dickson (MS Mondraker Team) were 28th and 29th.

O’Callaghan’s attention now turns to next weekend’s World Cup round in Loudenvielle in France, plus another in the same country the following weekend. Having taken 12th in the world championships on August 5th and then 9th in the most recent World Cup, his motivation and confidence are on the up.

“Going into the next two races back to back is going to be good. Coming fresh off two good results, I looking forward to keeping this momentum rolling and seeing what we can do.”