County Cork’s Eddie Dunbar won stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana with a final kilometre attack that saw him overtake the breakaway group and never look back.
Despite finishing seventh in last year’s Giro d’Italia, Dunbar has had a frustrating few years with injuries to his collarbone, thumb and knee derailing his progress but he sprinted an incredible final 600 metres after overtaking the trio of Max Poole, Carlos Verona and Urko Berrade. Britain’s Poole ended up finishing third with Belgium’s Quinten Hermans taking runner up.
Overall leader, Australia’s Ben O’Connor ended up way down in 42nd place but it was Dunbar’s day as he won his first ever stage at a Grand Tour. The Jayco AlUla rider had, up to this point, had a pretty disappointing event and even admitted himself that it was a shock for him to come out on top:
“I can’t believe I got this opportunity today. My preparation for the Vuelta was actually very good but I’ve had a really disappointing start and I wasn’t sure I had the legs for the climb today.”
The climb he is referencing was a grueling 9% incline over the final three kilometers but with the breakaway group tiring, Dunbar seized his chance:
“I stuck with the group and I know I can sprint so I just used all of my experience. To be honest, 600 metres wasn’t an ideal amount of time to sprint but I dug in and I can’t believe that I got it done.”
Today’s result moves him up to 18th in the overall rankings as he and the rest of the group prepare for tomorrow’s stage 12 from Ourense Termal to Estacion de Montana de Manzaneda.