Eddie Dunbar climbed to victory atop Peña Blancas on stage 19 of the Vuelta a España on Friday, timing his final surge to the line perfectly to win.
The Pinarello Q36.5 rider chased down Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) inside the final kilometre to take his third Vuelta stage win, and his first victory in four years. In doing so, Dunbar won Pinarello Q36.5’s first Grand Tour stage, and just their second WorldTour race. To cap things off for the team, third place went to Tom Gloag, also of Pinarello Q36.5; it is Gloag’s best result at a WorldTour race.
Behind, Enric Mas (Movistar) finished with the group of favourites, meaning he retains the red jersey by a healthy margin going into the penultimate day, Saturday’s stage 20. Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Mas’s closest challenger, attempted to shake things up, but he could not distance the Spaniard, who is now just two days away from glory.
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Dunbar was part of a group of 20 which was fully established with around 111km to go, before it was gradually whittled down to a final group of four on the final climb: himself, Buitrago, Gloag and Urko Berrade (Kern Phama). Buitrago attacked with about 1.8km to go, and was reeled in by Dunbar inside the final 700m.
“It’s incredible,” Dunbar said on TV post-stage. “I really didn’t expect this today, I even said in the team radio after about 50 or 60km that today wasn’t my day, I wasn’t feeling good. I ended up in the break, and my legs came round a bit. I had two teammates in the break as well, which helped, that made me feel a lot more comfortable in the breakaway. It gave me a bit of time to relax if anything happened on the flat or on the descents, I had someone there.
“They did a super job, and having Tom there in the final made a big difference. This year I had three months out where I didn’t ride a bike at all after a bad accident, and I really didn’t think I’d be here, even competing for stages. I can’t believe it, I can’t.”
“When you’re in a situation like that, I wish I had the same legs as Buitrago for sure, because the attacks he put in were incredibly strong,” he added. “I need to be a bit more careful about when I used my effort. I knew I had one effort in me and I wanted to use that to win the stage. When they went on the steep bit with about 12km to go I paced myself there not to go into the red, and I came back.
“Having Tom there gave us a bit of extra insurance, and I thought Tom was gonna get the win today, he looked super strong. In the end, having the numbers there really played in our favour. That last kilometre went so quick, I don’t really remember what happened.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The race’s longest stage was the antepenultimate chance for a stage win, but also for the GC to be shaken up, all of which would be decided on the final climb of Peñas Blancas, 18.8km at 6.5%, but with ramps far above that.
As well as those who challenged for the day’s win, the break included Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ), as well as a third Pinarello Q36.5 rider in Marcel Camprubí.
Buitrago went with 13km to go, but was then joined by Dunbar, Gloag and Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma), with the quartet boasting an advantage of 44 seconds with 7km to go. The Colombian attacked again with 1.8km to go, with a gap quickly opening up, however, Dunbar responded, bringing the gap back to around 10 seconds under the flamme rouge. Double digit gradients inside the final kilometre led to the gap being squashed, and Dunbar riding to glory.
Meanwhile, further down the climb, Movistar, EF Education-EasyPost and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe had shared turns controlling what was left of the peloton, but ultimately, it came down to the leaders, who could not shake each other. Roglič and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) both attempted to put time into others, but with no luck, and the pair, along with Mas, Oscar Onley (Netcompany-Ineos) and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) all finished together.
Saturday’s stage 20 will be decisive, then, in deciding the direction of the race, although Mas still has 1:37 on Roglič. There are five categorised climbs, including three first category efforts, one hors-categorie, and one cat three.
Results
Vuelta a España 2026, stage 19: Vélez-Málaga > Peñas Blancas (210.8km
1. Eddie Dunbar (Irl) Pinarello Q36.5, in 5:00:54
2. Santiago Buitrago (Col) Bahrain Victorious, +14s
3. Tom Gloag (GBr) Pinarello Q36.5, +23s
4. Urko Berrade (Esp) Kern Pharma, +44s
5. Marcel Camprubí (Esp) Pinarello Q36.5, +1:44
6. Andreas Leknessund (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +2:01
7. Guillaume Martin (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +2:11
8. Chris Hamilton (Aus) Picnic PostNL, +2:39
9. Kevin Vermaerke (USA) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +3:03
10. Sergio Samitier (Esp) Cofidis, +3:17
General classification after stage 19
1. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar Team, in 62:52:03
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +1:37
3. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon CMA CGM, +3:01
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +5:17
5. Oscar Onley (GBr) Netcompany Ineos, +6:03
6. Jakob Omrzel (Slo) Bahrain Victorious, +7:06
7. Clément Berthet (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United, +7:57
8. Cristián Rodríguez (Spa) XDS Astana, +8:21
9. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek,, +9:06
10. Harold Tejada (Col) XDS Astana, +10:27
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