Latest news with #Jayco-Alula
Irish Independent
14 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Cork cyclist Eddie Dunbar up for challenge of very first Tour de France – ‘He has never let us down'
Dunbar (28) will be part of a Jayco-Alula team built around Australian climber Ben O'Connor and Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen. The 2025 edition of the Tour, starting in Lille on Saturday and ending in Paris on July 27, will see riders travel 3,338.8km over 21 days. Dunbar's former Kanturk O'Leary Stone Cycling Club coach, Dan Curtin, told The Corkman that he and others from the club will be cheering Dunbar on in France. 'He has never let us down and he is one of our own,' Dan said. Though Dunbar may be tasked with supporting O'Connor in particular, he could well get chances to go for stage wins. He proved he could race with the best in the peloton last year, by winning two stages of the Vuelta a España. Despite stepping up to the top level of cycling almost eight years ago, the Banteer racer has had to wait for his chance to compete in the Tou de France, the biggest race in the professional calendar. Mr Curtin reckons the challenge presented by the Tour will be difficult, but Dunbar will get on 'okay.' 'Eddie will do okay if he plays his cards right and doesn't get too excited during parts of it,' he said. 'I do think it will be a big challenge, but I think he is up for it.' Mr Curtin said he had a brief call with Dunbar last week. Dunbar told Mr Curtin that he is excited for the challenge and is planning his moves and plays for the race ahead. 'He must keep his eyes open on this one and get the bit of luck that you need,' Mr Curtin said. The cycling coach said domestic racing and competitions are very different to those on the continent, and native riders may have an advantage, but he fully believes in his former trainee's ability. 'Look, you have shorter distances [in Ireland] and you tend to go all out in the race whereas those on the continent would be pacing themselves and would rely on the other riders to pace them,' he said. 'Eddie will have to do a lot of work. 'The concentration is big because going up a climb is one thing, but you are going down fast and around bad bends. 'Some fellas can climb but can't descend.' France is currently under an extreme high temperature warning, with heat close to 40C, which will play a factor in riders' preparation for the Tour. Mr Curtin expects additional feeding points to be made available along the route to allows riders to refuel. Despite the extreme heat expected, some members of Kanturk O'Leary Stoen Cycling Club will make the journey over to France to support Eddie, who Dan described as a 'dream' to coach. 'He is a pure dream to train,' he said. Mr Curtin founded Kanturk O'Leary Stone in 1991, and it has since grown to one of Ireland's most active underage clubs. The club has bred a number of elite level cyclists including Dillon Corkery, Sam Bennett, Archie Ryan and Josie Knight. 'I know of clubs all my life and they never got something like this [elite cyclists] and then we come along and have five or six of them,' Mr Curtin said. 'We might never see the likes of this again, but at least we got there.'
Irish Independent
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
‘I was bolloxed basically' – Eddie Dunbar on crashes, concussion and preparing for his Tour de France debut
Cork rider tackling Criterium du Dauphine as part of a big summer of racing Eddie Dunbar will lead the Jayco-Alula team in the week-long French stage race Criterium du Dauphine on Sunday as part of a build-up to what would be a debut Tour de France ride for the Cork man next month. After his first two Grand Tour stage wins at the Vuelta a Espana last season, Dunbar came into 2025 with renewed confidence and was in good early-season form at the Alula Tour in Saudi Arabia in January, finishing fourth and fifth on the two toughest mountain stages.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Yates snatches Giro title on stunning penultimate stage
Simon Yates' first Grand Tour win came seven years ago at the Vuelta a Espana [Getty Images] British rider Simon Yates produced a stunning performance on the penultimate stage of the Giro d'Italia to snatch the pink jersey from Isaac del Toro and effectively ensure his second Grand Tour title. Del Toro came into the 20th and final competitive stage of the race with a 43-second lead over Richard Carapaz, with Yates trailing by one minute and 21 seconds in third. Advertisement Mexico's Del Toro, 21, would have clinched victory in his maiden Giro by successfully negotiating the Colle delle Finestre, the highest point of this year's race and where Yates' hopes of winning evaporated in 2018. But Yates, 32, exorcised those ghosts as he attacked on the brutal ascent to leave Del Toro and Carapaz - the 2019 winner - in his wake. He not only wiped out Del Toro's advantage but was one minute 41 seconds clear of his general classification rivals when he crested. His Visma-Lease A Bike team had pulled off a masterstroke as team-mate Wout van Aert was in the breakaway group and allowed Yates to catch him on the descent, helping him build a comprehensive lead over the final 20km. Advertisement Jayco-Alula's Australian rider Chris Harper, who was the first over the Colle delle Finestre summit, claimed the second Grand Tour stage win of his career, with Yates crossing one minute 57 seconds later, third on the day. Yates was in tears as he hugged team staff at the finish, surrounded by media, with Del Toro of UAE Team Emirates crossing the line five minutes after him. It means the Briton leads Del Toro by three minutes 56 seconds, with Carapaz in third, heading in to Sunday's processional stage in Rome. "I'm not really an emotional person but I couldn't hold back the tears," said Yates. Advertisement "It's something I've worked towards year after year and I've had a lot of setbacks but I've finally managed to pull if off." Yates lost 30 seconds to Del Toro during Friday's stage but recovered to become just the third British rider to win the Giro, after Chris Froome (2018) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (2020). Yates 'always had' redemption in mind Froome memorably snatched the pink jersey on the penultimate mountain stage in 2018, as Yates cracked and ultimately lost more than 38 minutes. This year, the same climb was scheduled for late in the 205km stage from Verres to Sestriere and Yates, who bounced back from the 2018 Giro to win that year's Vuelta a Espana, said after today's stage he "always had it in the back of my mind" once the route was announced. Advertisement The 18.5km climb has an average gradient of 9.2% and started 43km from the finish. Within a kilometre of the climb, Carapaz's EF Education team attacked, but Del Toro was alert to the danger and soon closed the gap to Carapaz, with the rest of the peloton dropping back. Yet Yates then came from nowhere to join his general classification rivals and made a series of attacks before ultimately breaking clear. When Yates hit the gravel section, he extended his lead, while Del Toro and Carapaz continued to trade blows. But by the time they also reached the summit, some 2,178m above sea level - they knew the race was gone. Advertisement "It's incredible, said Van Aert. "It was such a brave effort from Simon to go all in from so far. I love it when people are not racing for a place of honour."
Daily Tribune
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Tribune
Luke Plapp in great escape as Italy's Ulissi take Giro lead
Australian Luke Plapp broke away on a 50km solo attack to win a hilly stage eight of the Giro d'Italia yesterday as veteran Italian all-rounder Diego Ulissi grabbed the overall lead. A series of attacks ensued early in the hilly stage, with the main contenders allowing the escape to make it far enough ahead of them for Plapp to climb the podium as winner and, to the delight of the crowds, drink a considerable amount of the fizzy wine he sprayed over them. The 24-year-old Jayco-Alula rider from Melbourne shook his head in disbelief at the finish after his first major win following an impressive solo effort in the picture-postcard hills. But just 38sec behind Plapp, third-placed Ulissi gazed at the clock in a nail-biting wait for overnight leader Primoz Roglic to cross the line. Ulissi had been 4min 01sec down at the start and the main contenders for the title were just a handful of seconds outside that limit, meaning he couldn't celebrate until he knew they had missed the time cut. 'I was going for the stage win, I hadn't thought about the race lead until the fans started to shout about the pink jersey along the road,' Ulissi said. Ulissi now leads Roglic by 17sec in the overall classification and will ride out in pink Sunday giving home crowds something to cheer.
The 42
17-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Luke Plapp in great escape as Italy's Ulissi takes Giro lead
AUSTRALIAN LUKE PLAPP broke away on a 50km solo attack to win a hilly stage eight of the Giro d'Italia on Saturday as veteran Italian all-rounder Diego Ulissi grabbed the overall lead. A series of attacks ensued early in the hilly stage, with the main contenders allowing the escape to make it far enough ahead of them for Plapp to climb the podium as winner and, to the delight of the crowds, drink a considerable amount of the fizzy wine he sprayed over them. The 24-year-old Jayco-Alula rider from Melbourne shook his head in disbelief at the finish after his first major win following an impressive solo effort in the picture-postcard hills. 'It's a dream come true,' said Plapp, who seemed a little lost for words. 'It was a savage fight to get in that breakaway.' You can view the classifications here> Advertisement But just 38sec behind Plapp, third-placed Ulissi gazed at the clock in a nail-biting wait for overnight leader Primoz Roglic to cross the line. Ulissi had been 4min 01sec down at the start and the main contenders for the title were just a handful of seconds outside that limit, meaning he couldn't celebrate until he knew they had missed the time cut. 'I was going for the stage win, I hadn't thought about the race lead until the fans started to shout about the pink jersey along the road,' Ulissi said. 'When I was a kid I used to watch the Giro with my grandparents and dreamed about this mythical jersey. So this is hugely satisfying,' the 35-year-old said. Ulissi now leads Roglic by 17sec in the overall classification and will ride out in pink Sunday giving home crowds something to cheer in his home region of Tuscany. It had been 86 stages since an Italian led the race — Alessandro De Marchi was the last to wear pink just over four years ago. There were four categorised climbs between the coastal town of Giulianova, along a rugged 197km route through the Abruzzo region, to the Castelraimondo finish — halfway up the Italian peninsula. When the contenders for the overall Giro win did come into the home straight, Friday's stage winner Juan Ayuso attacked and finished just 1sec ahead of Roglic but once again used up a great deal of energy to do so with 13 long stages remaining. 'There's still a very long way to go,' Roglic said at the line before handing over the pink jersey. Sunday's stage will run over the white gravel roads of the sparkling wine vineyards outside Siena. Sam Bennett and Darren Rafferty are the Irishmen in action. – © AFP 2025
