Eddie Dunbar has really been through the wringer. Once dubbed the future of cycling and signed to Ineos Grenadiers for four years, the Irishman has suffered from fractured collarbones (twice), a fractured hand (twice), knee injuries, ACL complications, saddle sores, illnesses, Covid, and changes of coaches that worsened his performances. Time after time, events conspired against him. Far from being Ineos’s rising star, he rode just one Grand Tour for the British team and claimed that he often wasn’t even given a proper explanation as to why he was omitted from four different three-week squads.
But Dunbar was – is – blessed with sporting talent. Mad about rugby – “I’m fascinated by it,” he once said – and a rapid fast runner, a 5k time of 15:25 his best mark, he was meant to be a sportsman. He had – has – all the abilities to be a potent GC rider, competing for youth and U23 titles and winning bigger races like Coppi e Bartali and Tour de Hongrie. But he knew he could do so much more, win something far greater. “I just need to get more exposure to WorldTour racing because I haven’t done much for four years,” he told Rouleur at the beginning of 2023.
That winter, he left Ineos and joined Jayco-Alula, where he was to be the Australian team’s second GC rider after Simon Yates. Within months, he rode his first Grand Tour in four years, riding to seventh on GC at the Giro d’Italia. It was proof that without setbacks and embedded in a team that backed him unconditionally, he could prosper. But back came the mishaps: out of the 2023 Vuelta a España after five days and out of this May’s Giro after only two. The soon-to-be 28-year-old, who regularly trains with Tadej Pogačar at home in Monaco, began questioning his longevity as a professional cyclist.
“Since the Vuelta last year, I’ve had seven or eight crashes and, physically, that takes its toll, and mentally also,” he said. “Numerous times in my head, I’ve thought I might not have a future in the sport because of the crashes and injuries I’ve had. This year after the Giro, when I injured my ACL, I thought that could be the nail in the coffin in terms of my cycling career.”
But it wasn’t. Though his GC ambitions went up in smoke within days at this year’s Vuelta, on stage 11, he answered those fears he had. Having found himself in the large breakaway that wrestled clear of the peloton 60km into the day, he missed the group of three that splintered off on the final climb and looked set to contest the finish. But the trio, including Britain’s Max Poole of Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL, were brought back just in time, and as the reduced group of 14 all looked at each other, sizing one another up as they prepared to sprint for victory, Dunbar stole a march and went long with 600 metres to go. His fellow escapees didn’t react, and within seconds, it was obvious that the Irish time trial champion would use his staying power to hold on for a first-ever win at WorldTour level and, more crucially, secure a maiden Grand Tour victory.
After all the hurt, frustration, doubts, and many, many setbacks, this was a deserved and overdue success. Behind, race leader Ben O’Connor lost 37 seconds to Primož Roglič, shifting the momentum back towards the challenger – but the day was all about Dunbar scoring a triumph that really ought to have happened several years ago but has finally, at long last, occurred. It should, he and his many supporters hope and expect, be the first of many. “I actually can’t believe it,” he said afterwards, visibly emotional. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Does Dunbar finally have the luck of the Irish?
