Eddie Dunbar to ride his first Tour de France after being selected by Jayco Alula
The 28-year-old Corkman will be part of a dual-focused team built around Australian climber Ben O'Connor and Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen. Dunbar, however, has shown he can race with the best in the peloton by winning two stages of the Vuelta a Espana last year and finishing seventh at the 2023 Giro d'Italia.
Despite stepping up to the World Tour level almost eight years ago, the Banteer racer has had to wait for his chance to compete in the biggest race in the calendar.
Dunbar finished the traditional pre-Tour warm-up race, the Criterium du Dauphine in 19th place overall after a mixed week but he had his early season interrupted after he suffered a concussion and a whiplash injury in a crash at Tirreno-Adriatico.
O'Connor finished second in the Vuelta general classification last year and in 2021 was fourth at the Tour. The Australian team are eager to row in behind the Aussie rider, who finished seventh at the Tour de Suisse earlier this month.
'We're really looking forward to getting on the road at the Tour de France with Dylan Groenewegen for the sprints and we've got Ben O'Connor for GC. We'll have the national time trial champion and road race champion, Luke Plapp and Luke Durbridge, as Australians in the team, along with Ben, who is the first Australian GC leader for the team,' said the team's sports director Mathew Hayman.
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