Eddie Dunbar won stage 19 of the Vuelta a España, turning around what had been a difficult season to win the penultimate mountain stage of the 21-stage race.
The Corkman put in a brilliant performance to claim the third Vuelta stage win of his career, sparking off the day’s breakaway with 110km to go on the Puerto del Viento climb, with 16 riders joining him in the breakaway.
Dunbar, racing for Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling, pushed on in the final Category-1 climb before Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain-Victorious launched his attack 13km from the finish, with Dunbar and his team-mates Thomas Gloagg and Urko Berrade all responding.
Buitrago, who leads the King of the Mountains classification, attacked again with 2km to go, but Dunbar gradually reeled in the Colombia before launched his own late surge with 300 metres to go, darting clear to cross the line solo.
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The 30-year-old, who previously won two stages at the Vuelta in 2024, finished 14 seconds in advance of Buitrago, taking his first stage win of a season hampered by injury.
In March, Dunbar withdrew from the Paris-Nice stage race after picking up a fractured rib in a crash, and then suffered an ankle injury when he was hit by a scooter having returned to his base in Monaco.
“This year I had three months out where I didn’t ride a bike at all after a bad accident,” Dunbar said after his victory on Friday. “I really didn’t think that I would be here and even competing for stages, let alone just be here.
“I can’t believe it. It’s incredible. I really didn’t expect this today. I even said in the team radio after about 50 or 60k that today wasn’t my day, I wasn’t feeling good. But then I ended up in the break and my legs came around a bit. I had two team-mates in the break as well, which always helps.”
Affected by injury as well last season, the victory is the first since Dunbar won two stages in the 2024 Vuelta a España. It’s a huge boost to his confidence and is the first-ever Grand Tour stage win by his team.
“I wish I had the same legs as Buitrago, the attacks he puts in are incredibly strong,” Dunbar added. “I need to be a bit more careful about when I use my effort. I knew I had one effort in me, and I wanted to use that effort to win the stage.
“When they (Bahrain-Victorious) went on the steep bit with about 12k to go, I really paced myself there not to go into the red, and I came back. That last (kilometre) went so quick, I can’t really remember what happened.”
In the general classification, Enric Mas maintained his hold of the leader’s red jersey, finishing alongside fellow GC leaders Primoz Roglic, Félix Gall and Richard Carapaz 5:11 back on Dunbar.
The Spaniard is 1:37 seconds clear of four-time Vuelta winner Roglic in second, and is just two stages away from ending a 12-year wait for a home Vuelta winner.
