Dunbar Stars at World Championships
Cork Racer Out Front For 75km at Under-23 Road Race in Richmond
Doogan Races All the Way in Junior Women’s Road Race
Racing in his first Under-23 World Championship road race, Eddie Dunbar of Cork was one of the principal animators of today’s 162.2km event in Richmond, Virginia.
Dunbar eventually finished 108th, 10m44s down on the race winner Kevin Ledanois of France but further enhanced his burgeoning reputation with another trademark display of fearless attacking riding.
On the third of ten 16.2km laps Dunbar went clear with four riders chasing a four-man group of leaders and the irrepressible Kanturk rider soon raced clear again with Jose Luis Rodriguez of Chile.
The duo were joined in turn by Davide Martinelli (Italy), Oleg Zemlyakov (Kazakhstan) and Maximilian Schachmann (Germany) with the bunch just over two minutes back at one point.
Dunbar was the most active rider in the break, doing long turns in what eventually turned out to be 75km and almost five of the ten laps clear of the main pack.
Eventually the pace told on the first year senior who only turned 19 at the beginning of the month and he was distanced by his breakaway companions with four laps to go but not before he made a name for himself in the highest profile Under-23 race of the year.
Afterwards, Team Manager Neil Martin paid tribute to Dunbar’s fighting performance:-
"In my book he did an Eddie," said Martin. "That's what people have come to expect from him. Eddie's got a clear idea of the big picture and at the end of a day when many of the big cycling nations failed to get a rider in the top ten, everyone knows Ireland was in the race.
"He's very young to be racing at this level but he never looked back once and he produced a more than admirable performance in riding as well as he did in the break and then finishing the event. He did Ireland proud."
Earlier in the day Ciara Doogan finished 58th in the Women’s Junior Road Race.
Donegal rider Doogan lined up for her first world championship road race over four laps for a total of 64.9km on the demanding Richmond Town Centre course.
On a first lap characterised by crashes and the three daunting short, sharp climbs in the last four kilometres, Doogan showed her fighting qualities by racing back into the bunch after being distanced by the group.
She spent much of the race in a chase group of 13 riders and finished 58th, 7m 31s behind race winner Chloe Dygert of the USA.
Afterwards Team Coach Frank O'Leary said:
“Ciara dug deep today and got everything out of herself. It's her debut worlds and she's banked a massive amount of experience this year.
"It's been a long season and she'll benefit greatly from this week. She'll go home now, review the year and focus on her goals for next season."