LAST UPDATE | 25 May 2023
EDDIE DUNBAR HAS moved up to fourth place overall in the Giro d’Italia after finishing 10th in today’s stage.
The Corkman finished 2.32 behind his Team Jayco AlUla teammate Filippo Zana, who won the stage, and moved one spot closer to the podium. He is 3.39 behind leader Geraint Thomas.
#Giro 🇮🇹
— Team Jayco AlUla (@GreenEDGEteam) May 25, 2023
Not only is it a phenomenal stage win for Zana but our Irish climber moves up to 4th place overall.
Yes Eddie! 👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼 pic.twitter.com/FOOlqjNvXD
One mountain stage, a time trial and the final stage in Rome remains in what is Dunbar’s second grand tour.
Zana edged Thibaut Pinot to take today’s stage while Primoz Roglic went on the attack and shook off all his main rivals except race leader Thomas, who was celebrating his 37th birthday.
On the first of three brutal days in the Dolomites, French veteran Pinot, who is retiring at the end of the season, drove the breakaway on as he collected enough points to take the King of the Mountains classification lead from Ireland’s Ben Healy.
#Giro 🇮🇹
— Team Jayco AlUla (@GreenEDGEteam) May 25, 2023
Yes @EddieDunbar 🙌🏼
3 days to go… pic.twitter.com/Vjyf7TzKmp
However, Pinot lost out on a stage victory in the final climb to the line for the second time in a week.
Zana, the reigning Italian champion, is part of the Jayco–Alula team and was racing on home roads in his home region in north-east Italy.
Down the mountain, Roglic, paced by team-mate Sepp Kuss, went on the attack from the group of leading riders
The Jumbo-Visma pair quickly dropped all their main rivals except Welshman Thomas of the Ineos team who stuck to Slovenian Roglic’s rear wheel and celebrated his birthday by keeping the leader’s pink jersey.
Thomas, the 2018 Tour de France champion who is bidding to become the oldest ever Giro champion, remained 29 seconds ahead of Roglic who took second place from Joao Almeida.
Friday’s 19th stage is a 183km ride from Longarone to Tre Cime di Lavaredo that includes five significant peaks.
Saturday’s penultimate stage is a ferocious 18.6km uphill time trial.
