Eddie Dunbar has retained his overall lead at Coppi e Bartali and now the Irishman just has tomorrow’s final stage to contend with before claiming what will be his first victory as a professional.
Today’s 158.7km stage 4, which started and finished in Montecatini, was much more controlled, and not as demanding, as the last two days. Dunbar now appears to have the most dangerous moments behind him in his quest to win the race.
While today’s fight for stage victory came down to a reduced bunch sprint won by Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), that was only part of the story of the Dutchman’s day out. He managed to bridge across solo to the day’s main breakaway and even though he and the others were caught inside the final 10k, Van der Poel still had the legs to win the sprint.
That breakaway included: Luc Wirtgen (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB), Samuele Rivi (Eolo-Kometa), Andrea Piras (Beltrami TSA-Tre Colli), Andrea Garosio (Biesse Carrera), Emil Dima (Giotti Victoria-Savini Due) and Paul Wright (MG K Vis-Colors For Peace-VPM).
Van der Poel attacked to get across to it with almost 60km remaining in the stage, and just as the race reached the finishing circuit for four laps with the 3.1km Vico climb each lap, at an average gradient of 5.4 per cent.
Ineos Grenadiers rode on the front in pursuit of the breakaway, which at one point gained more than three minutes. The British team, which was working for Dunbar, was aided by some of the other teams as the finale ramped up.
Just as the last remaining breakaway men were about to be caught with 11km to go, Van der Poel attacked from the move but he was soon caught by the thinned out peloton. And though many would have expected his day to be over once he was recaptured, he clearly had other ideas.
The 27-year-old won the sprint for victory, from Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) and Rémy Mertz (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB). Van der Poel only rode his first race of the year last weekend, as his back injury sidelined him for a period, when he took 3rd in Milan-Sanremo.
However, while today’s ride was very impressive by the winner, from an Irish perspective it was all about Dunbar. He still leads the race by nine seconds from team mate Ben Tulett. The young British rider failed to take any bonus seconds at the finish today.
That means, barring some unlikely implosion by the Irishman, once Dunbar finishes with Tulett tomorrow he will win the race outright. The only exception would be it Tulett were to win the stage, and take 10 seconds bonus, and for Dunbar not to place and therefore take no time bonuses.
Tomorrow’s stage looks like it will come down to a sprint from a reduced peloton and once the group is not very small it will suit Dunbar as Tulett is unlikely to win a sprint finish from a large group.
The 161km stage into Cantagrillo includes a finishing circuit to be contested three times and which includes the 5.3km climb of Mungherino. It is crested for the final time some 14km from the finish, most of which is downhill.
The course looks tailor-made for Eddie Dunbar and the 25-year-old, after episodes of illness and injury in recent years, looks like he is finally on the cusp of realising his potential and winning a major professional bike race.
