Eddie Dunbar riding through the pain in remarkable Giro effort

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