Top 10 for Dunbar in UAE heat

25 Feb 2020

Top 10 for Dunbar in UAE heat

Related riders

UAE Tour - Stage three: Al Qudra Cycle Track › Jebel Hafeet, 184km

Eddie Dunbar impressed with a 10th place finish in elite general classification company at the UAE Tour.

Despite sweltering heat on the Jebel Hafeet summit finish, Dunbar rode his way into a select lead group and held his own on the relentless slopes.

With Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) going solo to take a resounding 1:03 stage victory on day three, Dunbar crossed the line in the group battling for sixth spot - 1:56 back.

With the same climb set to be tackled once more on Thursday, Dunbar sits 10th overall, 2:06 back, but on the same time as four other riders.

The team did a strong job setting Dunbar up on the climb, with Carlos Rodriguez battling back from a pair of earlier crashes. Chris Froome slipped back as the accelerations began on the climb, continuing his racing comeback.
Eddie Dunbar

Eddie Dunbar

It was super hot starting the climb and the whole way up was pretty difficult.
null

Reaction

- Eddie Dunbar

“I actually felt quite good. My legs were good all day and the guys did a super job of keeping me out of trouble. We communicated very well and going into that last climb we stuck to the right side of the road and stayed there until the bottom of the climb. Each and every one of them has done a great job. (Michal) Golas and (Salvatore) Puccio set a solid tempo at the bottom to help keep me at the front. Then riders started swarming a bit, just because everyone was fresh. It was super hot starting the climb and the whole way up was pretty difficult. I’m never normally suffering in the heat but that was quite warm today. I did what I could.
 
“I do normally like a bit more of a punchy climb but I didn’t really have it today. I did try in the final 2km and I got the gap but I couldn’t sustain it. Performance-wise it was good but still a bit off the top guys, which is disappointing.
 
“I think a lot of guys won’t go as hard into the climb maybe on Thursday so they can go up it a bit quicker. The top three guys on GC are pretty far ahead now, even compared to times last year. There will be a lot of guys thinking about stage wins now compared to the overall, so it will be raced differently I think.”
Overall standings:

1. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) 12:30:02
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) +1:07
3. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) +1:37
4. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +1:40
5. Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t.
10. Eddie Dunbar (Team INEOS) +2:06"