Irishman Eddie Dunbar claimed his third career Vuelta a Espana stage win and his team’s first-ever grand tour win with a stinging late attack near the summit of the Penas Blancas, Estepona.
The Pinarello-Q36.5 rider was part of an elite four-man group who escaped on the upper slopes of the category-one climb and although he was initially dropped by a late attack from King of the mountains leader Santiago Buitrago, he reeled the Colombian in with less than 500m to go and sped past him to take victory at the end of another difficult day in the mountains.
There were fireworks in the general classification too as four-time champion Primoz Roglic put in repeated digs in the closing kilometres to try to claw back time on race leader Enric Mas, but there were ultimately no changes to the order of the top six ahead of the ‘queen stage’ on Saturday.
Dunbar said: “I really didn’t expect this today, I even said in the team radio after about 50 or 60km that today wasn’t my day, I wasn’t feeling good. I ended up in the break, and my legs came round a bit. I had two teammates in the break as well, which helped, that made me feel a lot more comfortable in the breakaway.
“This year I had three months out where I didn’t ride a bike at all after a bad accident, and I really didn’t think I’d be here, even competing for stages. I can’t believe it, I can’t.”
As had been expected for one of just two remaining stages in the general classification battle the pace was frantic from the start on the 210km run from Velez-Malaga to Penas Blancas.
Richard Carapaz, who won on this climb in the 2022 edition of this race, attacked from the peloton just under halfway through the stage, attempting to bridge across to a group up the road – but was ultimately foiled.
A 20-rider group got away as Movistar eventually managed to wrestle back control of peloton after a very testing first half of the day, with the race re-igniting after a long stretch of flat road leading to the final climb, an 18.8km slog averaging 6.5% but often tipping into double-digit gradients.
Roglic’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe took to the front on the lower slopes, aiming to put Mas and his dwindling supply of teammates under pressure, while more than six minutes up the road the breakaway splintered as riders attacked and were brought back.
Eventually a four-man group formed to contest the stage win, with Buitrago, Urko Berrade and Briton Thomas Gloag bridging across to Dunbar’s attack.
None of them were able to follow’s Buitrago’s initial acceleration but Dunbar regrouped and set off in pursuit, overhauling him in the last few hundred metres and ultimately finishing 14 seconds clear of the Colombian. Gloag – Dunbar’s teammate – took third, his best result on a grand tour stage.
In the peloton EF Education-EasyPost again forced the issue, setting an infernal pace and thinning down the group until eventually only the top six in the overall standings were left.
Mas successfully covered attacks from Roglic and Carapaz while stage 12 winner Jakob Omrzel also put in a fruitless dig, with the six crossing the line one behind the other.
Mas looked fatigued at points but is now just two days away from claiming a maiden grand tour victory, leading Roglic by 1’37”, while Briton Oscar Onley extended his lead in the best young rider classification, and strengthened his fifth place overall, to 1’03” over Omrzel.
The race continues on Saturday with the most brutal day of the race: a 186.8km stage taking in three category-one climbs and one hors-categorie behemoth on the way from La Calahorra to a first-ever summit finish atop Collado del Alguacil, which maxes out at 20%.
About the Author
