PADRON, Spain (AP) — Eddie Dunbar decided to hang in there after almost quitting cycling, and on Wednesday he was celebrating his first Grand Tour stage win.
The Irishman broke away with less than a kilometer to go to win the 11th stage of the Spanish Vuelta on a day that three-time champion Primoz Roglic cut nearly 40 seconds from Ben O’Connor’s overall lead.
Dunbar, from team Jayco AlUla, was marred by crashes and injuries over the last year and had thought about ending his cycling career.
“It’s incredible,” the 27-year-old Dunbar said. “Since the Vuelta last year, I think I had seven or eight crashes. And of course, physically, that takes its toll, but also mentally. I thought numerous times that I might not have a future in the sport, because of the crashes and the injuries I’ve had.”
He said his knee injury at this year’s Giro d’Italia almost meant the “the nail in the coffin of my cycling career.”
“But I have incredible support around me,” he said. “My girlfriend is forever there around me and I have an incredible group of friends and family. They back me so much as well. It’s been a long time coming but to repay all of them today means a lot.”
Roglic, who won the Vuelta from 2019-21, made his move on the final climb Wednesday to get within 3 minutes, 16 seconds of O’Connor. Enric Mas also moved closer and is less than four minutes from the lead.
“Yes, you can say that I had a hard time,” said O’Connor, the Australian from team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. “It was a steep finish and there’s quite a few guys that were super strong today. It’s not the worst case scenario. I’m not naive, there’s plenty of guys who are really dangerous in this race. I’ve had better days and that’s the story of La Vuelta for myself so far. Good day, average day, good day, average day… Hopefully I can change that and be good every day.”
Thursday’s 12th stage will be a hilly 137.5-kilometer (85-mile) route that will end with a long climb into the city of Manzaneda in northwest Spain.
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