Eddie Dunbar grabs top 10 finish in taxing seventh stage at Giro d'Italia

Ireland's Eddie Dunbar finished ninth on a gruelling seventh stage at the Giro d'Italia on Friday.

The Team Jayco–AlUla rider, who finished in the same position on stage four earlier this week, crossed the line three minutes and 10 seconds after stage winner Davide Bais of Eolo-Kometa.

The seventh stage was one for the climbers on a 218-km ride from Capua to Gran Sasso d'Italia which involved flat roads at the start before the final climb of approximately 45 km - a total altitude gain of 3,900 metres.

Cork native Dunbar has been aiming for a top 10 overall in the general classification at the Giro and his current stage performances leave him 11th as things stand, 16 seconds behind 10th placed Damiano Caruso.

Ben Healy was 73rd on the seventh stage with the EF Education-Easypost rider finishing in a time of 6:15:41 and is 72nd overall.

At the front, Italian Bais led a three-man breakaway, beating Karel Vacek and Simone Petilli to the finish line for the first victory of his career.

The breakaway trio of Bais, Petilli and Vacek were seven-and-a-half minutes ahead of the peloton with 20 km to go and they showed no signs of slowing down as the rest of the group played catch-up.

As they pedalled up an unrelenting climb through snow-banked roads, Czech rider Vacek fell away and looked like he was out of the contest before he put his head down and caught up with the two Italians again in the final two kilometres.

As they waited for each other to take charge in the final kilometre, it was 25-year-old Bais who dropped his rivals and sprinted ahead in the last 200 metres to take victory with Vacek second and Petilli third after they ran out of steam.

Additional reporting: Reuters