Eddie Dunbar has been selected by his Jayco Alula team to ride the Vuelta a Espana, which starts this Saturday in Lisbon.
The Cork man is named as part of their eight-rider line-up for the last Grand Tour of the season, and Dunbar will hope to make more of an impact in Spain than he was able to at Giro d’Italia earlier this year.
Dunbar was forced to withdraw from the Italian Grand Tour after suffering an injury in a crash on the second stage, while the 27-year-old also had to abandon the Vuelta last year after crashing on stage five. He’ll be hoping for a change of fortunes over the three-week race.
It starts with a 12km time trial in Lisbon but is once again a race for the climbers, with nine summit finishes on the menu.
Dunbar warmed up for the Vuelta last week at the five-day Vuelta a Burgos in the north of Spain, where he finished in 49th place in the general classification.
The Irish rider will be joined on the team by Alessandro De Marchi, Felix Engelhardt, Filippo Zana, Welay Hagos Berhe, Callum Scotson, Chris Harper and Mauro Schmid.
Jayco Alula say their ambition at the Vuelta is to win stages but with the best GC riders in the world set to skip the race, there’s an opportunity for others to make their mark.