Eddie Dunbar’s bid to equal or improve upon his fine Giro d’Italia performance last year has come to a sudden halt, with the Corkman withdrawing from the race before the third stage.
His team announced the news on Monday morning.
“Unfortunately following a crash on stage two of Giro d’Italia, Eddie Dunbar will not start today’s third stage,” Team Jayco AlUla said in a statement.
“The Irishman was able to finish the stage, but after further examinations by the team doctor, the decision has been made to withdraw the 27 year old from the race due to a sustained injury under his right kneecap and bodily abrasions.”
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Dunbar and three others crashed on Sunday’s stage, coming down on a right hand bend inside 65 kilometres to go. He quickly rejoined the bunch, but slipped backwards on the race’s first summit finish.
He trailed in 51st, 5′56 behind the stage winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), and dropped from 15th to 36th overall.
The crash is a big disappointment for Dunbar. He took seventh overall last year in what was his first opportunity to lead a team in one of cycling’s three Grand Tours. It was the best Irish Giro performance since Stephen Roche won the race in 1987.
He had been sitting fourth overall with three days to go, but became ill with a chest infection. He told The Irish Times last week that equalling or bettering his performance last year was his goal for the race.
Dunbar had crashed earlier this year in both the Volta Valenciana and the UAE Tour, sustaining a hand injury in the latter which put him out of competition for five and a half weeks. Those falls add to a number of crashes experienced in previous seasons, with Dunbar pondering his bad luck and the effect of those falls on his career.
“I’ve been waiting a few years now for my luck to change,” he told The Irish Times after that UAE Tour crash in February. “Obviously last year it kind of started to change at the Giro. It’s trying to get a run to get to 100% of my potential. I still don’t know what that feels like.”
His team has not indicated how long his recovery will take. Depending on how that goes, missing the Giro could potentially come with a silver lining.
He has never ridden the Tour de France but if he can return to training soon and keeps building form, he may be considered for the line-up for that race.
