Urška Žigart and Eddie Dunbar blasted to victory in their respective time trial championships in Slovenia and Ireland.
Liv AlUla Jayco’s Žigart, who recently finished in the top 10 at the Tour de Suisse, stormed her way through the 20km course with a time of 27 minutes. She was 2:15 faster than the next best finisher and averaging 44.4km/h. It is the 27-year-old’s fourth national time trial title since 2020.
Over in Ireland, Team Jayco AlUla rider, Eddie Dunbar took his first elite national time trial title in Limerick, in his first race since crashing heavily at the Giro d’Italia.
In what was one of the hardest TT courses the Irishman has done, Dunbar used his strengths over the hilly parcours to finish the 36.6km route in 45:09 minutes, 15 seconds ahead of his nearest rival Ryan Mullen.
Urška Žigart:
“Sadly there was not a lot of competition today. I did a really good time anyway and I pushed myself to the finish. It was a great day out, a bit hot for my liking but I managed quite well and I had great support here so it was an awesome day.”
Eddie Dunbar:
“I recon’d the course quite a bit yesterday and I think the technical side of the course, with quite a few corners is what won it for me today and I did have good legs. I needed that and it´s nice to know that the legs were there after all the mishaps this year and to get the national jersey is massive. I have a full set (of time trial titles) now, junior, U23 and elite so that´s nice and I´m just delighted. I´m going to rest now the next few days and go into Sunday’s road race again with no expectations and hope I have the same legs as today.”
2024 Slovenian Time Trial Championship results 20km:
Urška Žigart (Liv AlUla Jayco) 0:27:00
Hana Zuma +4:35
Ema Pirs +6:01
2024 Irish Time Trial Championship results 36.6km:
Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) 0:45:09
Ryan Mullen +0:15
George Peden +1:15
Photos: Urška Žigart (GreenEDGE Cycling), Eddie Dunbar (Cycling Ireland)
