Eddie Dunbar delivered an emotional victory on stage 11 of the Vuelta a España, making a late attack from a breakaway into Padrón to claim his first-ever Grand Tour stage win.
Dunbar made his move in the final 600 metres of the stage, surprising the other riders he was with to take an advantage. His rivals tried to chase him down, but Dunbar had already done enough to seal the victory and had time to soak in the moment and celebrate his win.
The Irishman was part of a 38-rider group, which included his teammate Filippo Zana, that formed more than 60 kilometres into the race following an aggressive start to the day. Despite some earlier attacks, the bulk of the breakaway remained going into the tough final ascent.
Zana followed a dangerous move by Carlos Verona on the last climb, holding onto the Spaniard until close to the top. It allowed Dunbar to keep his cool in the group behind as the riders tackled steep gradients on the punchy third-category rise.
As the group hit the descent, the gap to Verona and his companions was small and the break reformed ahead of the final kilometre.
Dunbar bided his time until the other riders started looking at each other with the line in sight. After a challenging 2024 season, his attack proved to be more than enough to deliver a much-deserved debut Grand Tour stage win.
Eddie Dunbar:
“It’s weird how it goes sometimes. I had a really bad start to the race, and I lost a lot of time. I came here to ride GC and I learned pretty quick that I didn’t have the legs to do it. My preparation was really good coming into here so it was a case of reassessing and going for a stage, and today an opportunity came that I didn’t expect. I tried hard to get into the break and I thought that was my legs gone and then all of a sudden the big group went. I thought me and Pippo rode really well in the break and that we were really smart.
It’s been a while since I’ve been in a scenario like this, to be honest. I used my experience. I was suffering a bit on that last climb but then I realised that everybody else was. I had Pippo up the road so that let me take a back seat so I could play my cards. I gambled and backed my finish. I know on a finish like this, after a hard race, I can sprint, but I knew I had to go long. Going at 600m was a bit long for a sprint but I knew that’s what I had to do to win. I can’t believe it.”
Stage 11 results:
- Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) 03:44:52
- Quinten Hermans +2s
- Max Poole st
GC
- Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) 43h54’54’’
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +3’16’’
- Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +3’58’’
