Eddie Dunbar made further progress in the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, improving two places to a fine ninth overall.
The Irishman finished safely in the reduced main peloton of 41 riders, 51 seconds behind the day’s winner Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost). The Dane had been asked during Monday’s rest day press conference if he had a problem with his form and why he had not done more in the race, looking a bit stunned by the question. He duly answered the doubters on Tuesday’s tenth stage with a fine stage win.
After spending much of a wet, cold day in the breakaway, he outsprinted Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) and Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco-AlUla) to the finish line in Viareggio.
“Today was such a hard day, I think one of the hardest stages I’ve done on the bike,” he said. “To end up with the win is unbelievable. At times I was sitting out there in the cold so confused that I almost didn’t know what was going on.”
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Cort, a teammate of the Irish stage eight winner Ben Healy, had previously won stages in the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, and completed the rare sequence of stage victories in all three Grand Tours.
Dunbar had started the day 11th overall, moving up from 12th when previous race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) withdrew on Sunday evening with Covid-19. He then made further progress during the Tuesday’s race, firstly mid-stage when sixth-placed Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe) withdrew due to illness, and then at the finish when the rider in tenth, Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), trailed in over 10 minutes back after a crash.
Dunbar is now ninth overall, two minutes 32 seconds off the race leader Geraint Thomas. The Corkman is equal on time with tenth-placed Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) and just 17 seconds off the rider in eighth Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers). He will be happy with the stage outcome, not least because he was off the back for some time early during the stage.
Asked by The Irish Times if he had felt okay or was below-par after the rest day, a Jayco-AlUla spokesman clarified that there was no problems, that he had simply stopped by the side of the road on the climb for a comfort break.
Healy rolled in as part of a group 11 minutes back. Wednesday’s lumpy 219km stage to Tortona looks tailor-made for a breakaway and he was likely keeping his powder dry for that. Healy said during Monday’s rest day that he was targeting another stage win in the Giro.
