Start at Tour de France not ruled out for Eddie Dunbar who dropped out of Giro d'Italia early: "He’s got a preparation now that would probably allow it"

Coming from Ireland's Banteer, Eddie Dunbar could finally use some of the Irish luck as well. The Jayco AlUla leader crashed hard in stage 2 of Giro d'Italia, forcing an early abandon for one of the top 5 GC favourites. His original plan was to ride another grand tour with Vuelta a Espana in August, however his sports director Matt White now hints on possible start at Tour de France.

"We spoke about it this morning. The Tour is not totally out of the question, but we’ve got climbers for the Tour. Look, he’s got a preparation now that would probably allow it. But we have to wait and see," White told Irish Times.

"Off the top of my head, I’d probably like to see him at the Vuelta first and ride GC again. The idea was to ride the Vuelta anyway, but what we did was going to depend on what we did here in the Giro. But now with the Giro out, I would like to see him focus on being at his best for the Vuelta and have another crack at the top 10 there."

"It’s just a shame... hopefully that’s it, enough’s enough, and he can just focus on being the best rider he can be rather than chasing his tail and coming back from injury. He certainly hasn’t had the luck of the Irish, has he?"