Eddie Dunbar

Eddie Dunbar
	Dunbar, 2023 Giro d'Italia.
Personal information
Full name	Edward Dunbar
Born	1 September 1996 (age 28); Banteer, County Cork, Republic of Ireland
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	57 kg (126 lb; 9 st 0 lb)
Team information
Current team	Team Jayco–AlUla
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climbing specialist
Amateur team
2013–2014	O'Leary's Stone Kanturk
Professional teams
2015	NFTO
2016–2017	Axeon–Hagens Berman
2018	Aqua Blue Sport
2018–2022	Team Sky
2023–	Team Jayco–AlUla
Major wins
	Grand Tours Vuelta a España 2 individual stages (2024) One-day races and Classics National Time Trial Championships (2024)

Eddie Dunbar (born 1 September 1996) is an Irish road racing cyclist who rides for Team Jayco–AlUla on the UCI World Tour.^[6] Dunbar won two stages at the 2024 Vuelta a España and was the 2024 Irish National Time Trial Champion.

Career

Amateur career

Hailing from Banteer, County Cork, Dunbar joined local amateur team O'Leary Stone Kanturk in 2013. He quickly shot to prominence on the national junior scene, winning the Irish National Championships Junior Time Trial the same year. He followed this up with victory in the junior Road Race and third in the junior Time Trial in 2014. He was named 2014 Irish Male Cyclist of the Year at the Cycling Ireland Awards.^[7]

Team Sky (2018–22)

Dunbar joined Team Sky in September 2018, after his previous team Aqua Blue Sport – whom he had joined at the start of 2018^[8] – encountered financial issues, and with approval from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), agreed to an early release from his contract.^[9] He competed in the 2019 Giro d'Italia and came third in Stage 12 of the race.^[10]^[11]

Team Jayco–AlUla

In August 2022, it was announced that Dunbar was to join Team Jayco–AlUla from the 2023 season, on a three-year contract.^[12] He finished 7th in the 2023 Giro d’Italia.

Race wins

Dunbar has six professional wins. These include two general classification victories, three stage wins and a national time trial championship.

He won two stages at the 2024 Vuelta a España, finishing first on stages eleven and twenty. On stage eleven, he was in a large group that broke clear of the peloton early in the stage and stayed ahead of the main field for over 100km. Approaching the finish in a group of fourteen riders, he sprinted clear with one kilometre to go and held on to win the stage ahead of Quinten Hermans and Max Poole.^[13]

His win on stage twenty came after he moved clear of the race leader's group with five kilometres to go and started to chase down stage leader Pavel Sivakov. Dunbar made up the deficit of forty seconds and continued to push on the hilly terrain, taking the win by seven seconds from Enric Mas. Race leader and eventual champion Primož Roglič was a further three seconds behind in third place.^[14]

He took his first general classification win at the 2022 Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, a five-stage race in Italy. Dunbar finished second to Mauro Schmid on stage one and moved into the race lead after the second stage. He held the lead from there until the end of the race, finishing nine seconds ahead of Ben Tulett.^[15] His second overall victory came a few weeks later at the 2022 Tour de Hongrie. The first four stages were won by sprinters, with the fifth and final stage proving decisive. Dunbar took the overall victory after a second place finish on the last day, winning by twenty-three seconds ahead of Óscar Rodríguez.^[16]

Dunbar was the 2024 Irish National Time Trial Champion. Raced on a 36.6km course around Athea, Dunbar finished 15 seconds ahead of Ryan Mullen to take his first elite national title.^[17]

His first professional win came at the 2016 An Post Rás representing American team Axeon Hagens Berman. Dunbar won stage seven from Dungarvan to Baltinglass and finished fourth in the general classification.^[18]

Grand Tour participation

In addition to the 2024 Vuelta a España where he finished eleventh and scored two stage victories, Dunbar also competed in the 2023 Vuelta and the 2019 and 2023 Giro d'Italia.

In his first Grand Tour race at the 2019 Giro d'Italia, Dunbar finished the race in 22nd place and was the second-highest overall finisher on the Ineos Grenadiers team. He finished third on stage twelve from Cuneo to Pinerolo, his first stage podium in a Grand Tour race.^[19] Dunbar finished ahead of future Grand Tour winners Jai Hindley and Sepp Kuss.

His second appearance at one of cycling's showpiece three-week races came at the Giro in 2023, taking five top-ten stage results on his way to seventh place overall. He finished fourth on stage 16 from Sabbio Chiese to Monte Bondone, his best stage result of the race.^[20]

His first Vuelta appearance came in 2023. He was in 42nd place overall after stage four but crashed in the neutral zone before the official start of stage five and withdrew from the race.^[21]