'Always a trademark of ours' - Vuelta stage winner Eddie Dunbar's talents honed with Kanturk CC

After more than three and a half hours with some tough climbs, Eddie Dunbar still had enough left for a final surge in stage 11 of the Vuelta a España.

On Wednesday, Dunbar claimed a stage win for Team Jayco AlUla, the first such victory for the Banteer cyclist in a grand tour.

The last few years have unfortunately been marked by a series of unfortunate crashes for Dunbar – who turns 28 tomorrow – with the most frustrating of those coming in the second stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia, compounded by the damaging of his cruciate ligament.

Dan Curtin of O’Leary Stone Kanturk Cycling Club, where Dunbar began his career, hopes that his good showing in Spain can mark a turnaround in fortune.

“He needed that bit of a kick!” he laughs.

“I was talking to him back along before he went out and I said that I’ve seen it happening with several good riders, several times – they have a run of good luck and they have a run of bad luck.

“He had some bad luck, but it wasn’t going to stay there and when it was going to turn, it was going to turn very well.

“He’s still very young, but hopefully he can avoid any crashes. Up to now, he has a great Vuelta, even if he was a half-hour down or whatever.

“He was eighth in a stage and he was there for his team. To win a stage is great.”

Seeking to make up time in the general classification, Dunbar was in an early 37-strong break and he stayed in the mix until the final kilometre, by which time the leading group was down to 14. When he made his move, nobody else was able to keep up.

“It was always a trademark of ours, you go for it – don’t be sitting in there,” Curtin said.

“One thing he always had was that he was always cocky enough that way! There was nothing that he wouldn’t take on, he always had that mentality in his head – ‘I can be as good as anybody else.’

“Sitting inside in the bunch is no good to anybody and you’re not going to improve, either.

“For years, he was attacking them up the road but he didn’t have the sprint – now he has the sprint in him as well when he goes up the road.”

Dunbar’s success, and that of Josie Knight – born in England but who moved to Ireland at a young age, opting to declare for Great Britian in 2018 and winning an Olympic medal recently – underline the good work being done by Kanturk.

However, as Curtin outlines, the work must be matched by the cyclist.

“It is possible to go far,” he said, “but you must put time into it.

“You need to put mileage in as you want to have a good base. Let everybody else be talking about monitors and this and that but I think that the monitors are holding up a lot of young fellas.

“It’s about hard work and that’s it. It’s nice though, after Josie Knight won a bronze medal on the track with Great Britain at the Olympics. She started on the track at Kanturk.

“We have five pros gone out of the club now. Archie Ryan is flying it as well at the moment [Ryan cycles for EF Education–EasyPost] and it’s great to see him out there.

“It would give you a bit of a lift, to keep it all going.”