“It’s hard to see any other result" - Realistic Eddie Dunbar admits Tadej Pogacar is a clear favourite for Giro d'Italia victory

After a seventh-placed finish in the general classification last year, Team Jayco AlUla's Eddie Dunbar will return to the Giro d'Italia with hopes of a podium finish, when the first Grand Tour of the year gets underway in a few days.

The Irishman willingly admits though that the Maglia Rosa is likely to be out of bounds for himself and all those hopefuls not named Tadej Pogacar. “If you’re asking me if he’s going to win the Giro, then I’d say I think so, yeah,” Dunbar laughs in conversation with Cycling News. “It’s hard to see any other result when you see that name on the start list. But even though it’s his first time, I think he understands the Giro and he respects it. I don’t think he’s going to come in thinking in any way shape or form that it’s already in the bag.”

Last year, Dunbar was well in the mix for the podium before falling away slightly to a seventh-placed finish in the last week. “I was actually very badly sick, but when you’re coming fourth in the Giro with two days to go, you’re not going to pull out,” he says of his experiences last year. “But we thought there was no need to say it publicly. If people get wind of it, you don’t know how the race will change. We weren’t going to gain anything from saying it.”

As such though, the 27-year-old knows the podium is a realistic goal for him to target. “I just try not to think about it,” Dunbar says of his approach. “If you have legs, you just hope you can stay with the best. If you don’t, then you try to stay with the second best or the third best until you get down the line. That’s all you can do.”

“It’s hard to go into a three-week race and say what you want to get out of it, because so much can change day on day,” Dunbar concludes. “I just want to get through the three weeks as best as possible and hopefully end up in a better position than last year. That would be a good achievement, I think.”