Eddie Dunbar is six days away from becoming just the third Irish rider to ever finish inside the top 10 at the Giro d'Italia, but he knows there's still a lot of road to travel yet this week.
The 26-year-old Team Jayco AlUla man is currently eighth on General Classification, 3'40" down on race leader Bruno Armirail [Groupama - FDJ] but with some big days in the mountains ahead, he reckons he can move up even higher.
Only Stephen Roche [winner in 1987] and Dan Martin [10th in 2021] have broken the top 10 at the Italian Grand Tour, but Dunbar has his sights fixed firmly on joining them this weekend.
"I'd be happy with it [eighth], but there's still room for improvement," he told RTÉ Sport during the race's second rest day.
"There are a lot of things I can improve on, especially given the circumstances this year when I was injured in February and March.
"I never look into stats too much, I go out and I do the best I can. Obviously, I think considering the nature of how this year has gone, I think it would be a very, very positive performance from my point of view."
One feature of this year´s Giro has been the high attrition rate; some riders crashing out, such as pre-race contender Tao Geoghegan Hart, and more withdrawing due to sickness, like world champion Remco Evenepoel.
"Anyone who gets to Rome should be very proud of the achievement."
Dunbar is still there, "as healthy as I can be", but it's a "bit of a lottery now", he says, as immune systems are hammered.
"Anyone who gets to Rome should be very proud of the achievement.
"Bad weather is part of the sport, but you don't expect it 12 days in a row at the Giro. You expect it some days but it's been shocking this year, absolutely shocking.
"It's part of the job, but some days you're just soaked, you've 100k left to go in the stage and you're soaked to the skin. No matter what you put on it won't make a difference. You're shivering, you're barely able to brake properly, and only people who cycle in that weather will know how hard it is."
Despite the foul weather, the riders have come in for some criticism for raising complaints about the safety of stage 13.
That day the riders were due to ride almost 200 kilometres, over a mountain pass that peaked close to 2,500 metres, before sense prevailed and organisers shortened the route and took out one of the three major climbs.
"There were lots of people online giving out about us," said Dunbar, tongue in cheek.
"These people have never, ever done it before in their lives.
"It's very easy to say it behind a phone or a laptop but when that stage was shortened there were people on the side of the road booing us as we passed in the bus, giving us the middle finger, the two fingers…while they stood there with hats, scarves and jackets!
"It wasn't the cold we were concerned about, it was the safety
"The issue was never about not to start, we wanted to start and do the first climb and then go straight onto the finishing [third] climb.
"But for whatever reason, the organising committee wanted the second climb in.
"We were saying the descent was dangerous, which it was. It wasn't a safe descent, there was gravel all over the road, it was four degrees, there was one place where the road wasn't surfaced in 20 or 30 years and we were coming down it doing 90kph, water bottles flying out of cages. That was the issue.
"It was crazy. Whatever it was about that second climb, they felt it had to be in the race, but it was a strange, strange call."
He got through it, like he has the 14 other stages, and now he´s where he wanted to be; within touching distance of a top five.
"There's a lot of racing still to come," he continued.
"Some fellas might crack, some guys might get better, I hope I'm the later and I can improve on the eighth place that I'm in.
"It's a better position that I expected to be in but I think the main thing is we keep doing what we're doing and whatever comes will come.
"It's only my second Grand tour, it's obviously a goal to get to Rome in that top 10. Whatever happens, it hasn't been a bad attempt for just my second Grand Tour."
