INTERVIEW | Eddie Dunbar talks Tour de France debut and high ambitions; Pogacar and Vingegaard; change of leader in Jayco and opening race of 2025

In Altea, CyclingUpToDate attented the Team Jayco AlUla camp and has gotten to talk to some of it's main riders. Irishman Eddie Dunbar was one of them, and we have discussed everything from how his injuries have hampered him, a possible Tour de France debut, INEOS Grenadiers and where he will start his season.

From 2018 to 2022 Dunbar raced for INEOS, where he learnt the ropes of being a top rider and worked with some of the world's very best. A bright talent, but part of a team with many sharks. He made his Grand Tour debut in 2019, but that was the only one he raced until he joined the Australian team in 2023. For a climber, and a rider we now know to be a Grand Tour specialist, it was not possible to reach his full potential whilst having this limitation.

"I think just having a bit more freedom, being in charge of what I want to do a little bit while working with Jayco," he told us. "I’ve always been a rider where I can just go well off following what I know works for me, and at INEOS everyone knows that they have their way of doing things it works with some guys and it doesn’t work with some other guys. I think you see that with some riders that left."

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"The setup they have is incredible you know, I know there’s been some things in the media and stuff about the team, they do a good setup, it works for some guys, it probably didn’t work for me as well as I wanted or they wanted and then I came here and I feel like my career took another step and I found a place where I can be myself more and just progress". In 2023 he signed with the Australian team, finding great form and riding to an impressive sixth place at the Giro d'Italia. Although, he was not fully satisfied with it, as he fell ill in the final week and lost some positions. He mentions there's still 'untapped potential'.

"The Giro I had last year was very good, with two days to go I was fourth in GC, unfortunately got sick, dropped a few places". However after that Giro he kept suffering from injuries, and felt that he had been "chasing form" throughout the winter and most of the 2024 season. It was only in June that he managed to consistently train and race in a way that allowed him to return to his top level.

"Then again in the [2024] Vuelta it was nice to get stronger in the third week and actually perform and win a stage. If you look at those two Grand Tours if you put the two of them together it’s quite a good result. Next year will be a really interesting year to see how it falls, if I get another crack up one and see what I can do. If I can keep that form of the Vuelta I think a Top10 and being competitive in a Grand Tour is possible and who knows what after that".

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At the Vuelta he didn't compete for the GC, but he won stage 11, a hilly day where he took an impressive triumph with a late move inside the final kilometer. But on stage 20 his win didn't come out of being tactically superior or lucky, instead it was a pure climbing performance above what GC riders such as Primoz Roglic and Enric Mas could put out that day.

He attacked the climb to Picón Blanco, building a gap over the red jersey group and then soloing to a strong stage win. It was the ideal way to end a complicated season. Dunbar hopes to keep his health in perfect condition, and has told us where he will start his 2025 season. 

"I’m starting the AlUla Tour next year at the end of next year, that will be the first race of the season. Obviously an important race for the team, AlUla is our main sponsor, so it’ll be nice to go there and out up the performance and perhaps start next year the way I finished this season." He will be joined by Alan Hatherly in the Saudi race, but will not stay in the Middle East for the Tour of Oman or the UAE Tour. Instead, "I will comeback, maybe do altitude camp and then head to Paris-Nice something like that, but yeah AlUla is the main focus for now".

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Safe to say he will start the season with good form and is a good card to collect UCI points. But he admits there is no pressure, despite the Australian team being mid-table at the moment. "Obviously it’s important the UCI points, but with a really solid year this year I had a solid year with UCI points, it is a good position for next year but the main thing for any team is they’re winning bike races and obviously this UCI ranking thing is there, we have to be aware of it, but at the end of the day the aim for any team is to win bike races, get results and just be performing. Obviously when you do that consistently UCI points just naturally come".

The 28-year old has raced the Giro-Vuelta double twice for Jayco now, but in 2025 a new goal might await at the Tour de France. "I might get the chance to start the Tour next year which would be nice and see how that goes. Obviously if that happens then the Vuelta after as well. At the minute the Tour might be on the cards. In this scenario he would link up with Ben O'Connor who has stated that's his prime goal. The change of leader from Simon Yates to O'Connor doesn't make much of a difference for the Irishman.

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"I only did a few races with Yatesy actually never did a Grand Tour but no it doesn’t change too much. With INEOS I raced for the leaders quite a bit, so I have quite a good experience racing for leaders and getting to know how they want to race and how they race Grand Tours," he explains. "Going to the Tour with Ben would be no different, he showed how good he is this year, he’s one of the top riders in the world. Yeah would be nice to have an opportunity to go for the Tour and give him a hand on the GC because he can definitely be competitive for a podium place. It’d be nice to go there and help him, put him in a good position and maybe get the chance myself to go for a stage win".

Asked about if the team will race aggressively to topple 'ultra' climbers such as Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, Dunbar says that he is onboard for such course of action: "Tadej and Vingegaard specially it’s like you want to be on a serious day to stay with them. You have to have serious condition to do day after day with them. Might do it once off, but day after day… I think teams are going to have to start putting UAE in pressure in these races".

"I think you see it in Lombardia this year there was quite a big breakaway up the road with quality bike riders. Put them under a little bit of pressure, burn their team quite early, and I think that’s the way racing is gonna go now. If you want to win you have to change tactics, because I haven’t seen anyone quite at the level of Tadej and that’s just a way teams are going to start working, attacking earlier maybe with a number of guys," he concluded.

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