Vuelta, Eddie Dunbar wins 11th stage.
Vuelta, Eddie Dunbar wins 11th stage
The opportunity presented itself in the last few hundred meters and the Irishman Eddie Dunbar with a sudden sprint did not let it slip away, taking the victory of the eleventh stage of the Vuelta under the noses of the handful of riders who were protagonists with him in the breakaway of the day.
The big boys stood by and it wasn't until the last climb before the finish at Campus Tecnologico Cortizo-Padron, also the site of the stage start, that Primoz Roglic realized he could try to nibble a few seconds off the race leader, Australian Ben O'Connor, who now has a 3'16" lead over the Slovenian, who is aiming for his fourth success in the Iberian stage race.
The Jayco-Alula team's Irishman è remained for much of the 166.5-kilometer route in the breakaway group, suffering with everyone else in overcoming the steep hills that characterized today's route. Known more as a climber than anything else, the 27-year-old Dunbar did not seem among the favorites to put everyone else in line but with a surprise sprint he gained some space to take his first stage win in a grand tour.
"I took advantage of my experience. I was suffering a little bit on that last steep climb, then I realized that everyone else was suffering,” he explained.
So I played my cards. It's true that going away with 600 meters to go was a bit risky but it was what I had to do to win. I can't believe it".
O'Connor started the day with a 3'53" lead over Roglic, but the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider è fell behind when Roglic tried to push on the last climb and so the Australian crossed the finish line 37 seconds behind Roglic, who perhaps could have even dared a bit more.
"I suffered, è it was really very hard,” said O'Connor. “Maybe I could have managed the race better, but, anyway, I am still in the red jersey and è it has been another day. I hope when we get back to the big mountains it will be again like I was in Granada". Tomorrow’s stage 12 includes 137.5 kilometers in the mountains from Ourense Termal, finishing at the nearly 1,500 meters of the Manzaneda ski resort.
