For 22 uninterrupted minutes, Eddie Dunbar has been narrating his entire story of four years at Ineos Grenadiers, summarising almost every race he did in chronological order, barely stopping to breathe nor to allow any follow-up questions. The only time he pauses, midway through, is to apologise. “Sorry, I’m just rambling on now.”

But this is no long-winded monologue without a purpose; the Irishman, in his thick Corkonian tones, is getting a lot off his chest, liberated to share his inner thoughts, lacing his speech with honesty. His reflective nature takes him on a journey of gratefulness and thankfulness, and then to one of disappointment, frustration and just a hint of what-could-have-been. 

In four years with the British superteam, Dunbar raced just one Grand Tour (the 2019 Giro d’Italia; 22nd on GC) and nine WorldTour stage races – a paltry return for someone who was granted ‘future star of cycling’ status in his teens.

No memory is as painful as the call he received from the team’s deputy principal Rod Ellingworth just before last year’s Giro d’Italia. “I’d won Coppi e Bartali in March and had shown myself there with my best ever power numbers. I took a short break after the Tour of the Alps as planned, and I was absolutely flying afterwards in training. I thought I was going to the Giro,” he says.

“I’d sat down for dinner at my girlfriend’s house in Ireland when I got a call from Rod. I assumed it was a call to say this is what we’re aiming for in the Giro and where he saw me fitting into the team. But he said I’d missed out. I was completely shocked. I didn’t really know what to say to him.” This was the fourth time Dunbar had been omitted from a Grand Tour squad, but this one stung the most.

This article was published in Rouleur in November 2023. The full article can be read here.