2 days ago
Archie Ryan excited to make Grand Tour debut at Vuelta a Espana: ‘There are going to be loads of opportunities'
Irish riders Eddie Dunbar and Archie Ryan will be on the start line for the Vuelta a Espana when it starts this Saturday in Piedmont, Italy.
Ryan, the 23-year-old from Wicklow, will be racing in his first Grand Tour after being selected by his team, EF Education-EasyPost, on a young squad that lacks an obvious leader after the withdrawal of Richard Carapaz due to illness.
With 11 summit finishes across the 21 stages, the mountainous Spanish Grand Tour should suit the young Irish rider who goes into the race on the back of a solid week at the Vuelta a Burgos earlier this month and having finished second overall at the Tour of Austria in July.
'I'm super, super excited,' said Ryan. 'I think it is going to be a great three weeks. I haven't done a Grand Tour before, so I'm excited for the experience. We've got a super young squad. It'll be pretty exciting and hopefully Poppy Chaves [Esteban Chaves] can guide us through it nicely.
'I want to try and get in the break in some of the harder stages and fight for a stage win or two. That's the goal. There are going to be loads of opportunities.
'That is why I'm just really excited to go there. It is the grand tour that has the stages that suit me the best.'
Ryan is one of four EF debutants alongside Markel Beloki, Lukas Nerurkar, and Jardi van der Lee while Esteban Chaves, James Shaw, Madis Mihkels and Sean Quinn have also been selected
Dunbar will return to the Vuelta with happy memories after winning two stages of last year's race and forms part of a three-pronged leadership for Jayco-Alula alongside Ben O'Connor and Chris Harper. The Wicklow-born Danish rider Chris Juul Jensen is also on the eight-rider team.
The confirmation of Dunbar's selection comes a day after it was announced he will leave the Australian team at the end of the season and move to Swiss team Q36.5 Pro Cycling.
The 28-year-old Corkman warmed up for the Vuelta by racing in the Arctic Race of Norway last week after he was forced to withdraw from his first Tour de France on stage 8 following a crash.
The race features 3,151km of racing across four countries, with 53,914m of elevation gain.
