{"id":229990,"date":"2025-10-28T11:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/229990\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T11:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:34:14","slug":"jayco-alula-team-boss-not-all-our-big-name-riders-made-their-mark-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/229990\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayco AlUla team boss | ‘Not all our big name riders made their mark this year’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Eddie Dunbar was 7th in the Giro two years ago and took two Vuelta stage wins last year, but this season was a frustrating one for the Irishman (Photo: Tommaso Pelagalli-Sprint Cycling Agency)<\/p>\n

Eddie Dunbar has been listed by Team Jayco AlUla boss Brent Copeland as one of five big name riders capable of winning races this year, but has said not all of them rode how they should have.<\/p>\n

General manager Copeland said the team should have finished in the top 10 of the World Tour rankings, and not back in 18th place. And while there were high points, including on the Grand Tours, he said the riders signed to win races should have made a bigger impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at this year\u2019s team with (Ben) O\u2019Connor, (Michael) Matthews, (Eddie) Dunbar, (Filipo) Zana, and (Mauro) Schmid, we had at least seven or eight riders capable of winning, but not all of them made their mark,\u201d he said, adding the return did not match the investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the team standings, we\u2019re in 18th place: that\u2019s not the position we deserve. We should be at least in the top 10 for what we\u2019ve invested and the energy we\u2019ve put into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Eddie Dunbar on his way to 8th in the TT at Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 in June, a career-best TT ride, though he never converted that form into a big road race result (Photo: Vincent Kalut-Sprint Cycling Agency)<\/p>\n

Though he did not mention Dunbar specifically as having fallen short of expectations, the Irish rider had a frustrating season. He was in the form of his life in major TTs this year, after two stage wins at the Vuelta in 2024 and 7th in the Giro in 2023, his first of three seasons with Jayco AlUla.<\/p>\n

However, his very obvious top form at times this year was never converted into results. A number of crashes hampered the Irish climber, including on the Tour de France, forcing him out after stage 7 when he looked in mint condition.<\/p>\n

And though Dunbar went to the Vuelta looking to rescue the season, he failed to fire as he can. He moves on to Q36.5 Pro Cycling next year after three seasons with Jayco AlUla.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Italian news outlet bico.pro, Copeland said 2025 was \u201ca decent season\u201d before adding \u201cwe could have done better\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ben O\u2019Connor won the queen stage of the Tour de France this year, on Col de la Loze, and he is very much the focus of the team for next season (Photo: Billy Ceusters)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won the queen stage of the Giro d\u2019Italia with Chris Harper and then did the same with Ben at the Tour de France. At the end of the season, however, you always think that perhaps you could have done something more.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso because expectations at the beginning of the year are always much higher than what you manage to achieve. Perhaps the only cases that represent the exception to the equation are this year\u2019s UAE or 2023\u2019s Visma, who won almost 70 races plus all three Grand Tours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the riders Copeland mentions are moving on including Dunbar, Zana and Harper, while what comes next for Matthews has not yet been confirmed. And other big names are also leaving, including Dylan Groenewegen, though O\u2019Connor stays for at least one more year.<\/p>\n

The team also brings in some new young riders including Australians Hamish McKenzie and Wil Holmes, both from Hagens Berman Jayco. British rider Robert Donaldson (23) was a new team member this year, as was Dutch rider Jelte Krijnsen (24) while Australian Luke Plapp is still aged just 24 years.<\/p>\n

Overall, Copeland \u2013 president of the International Association of Professional Cyclists \u2013 is very concerned the biggest World Tour teams now have a budget twice or three times as big as medium World Tour teams.<\/p>\n

And then the gap to the rest is also huge, and getting bigger, with Copeland suggesting salary caps and team budget caps may be required to keep the sport competitive and retain spectator and sponsor interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve reduced investments to build the new roster, even though it\u2019s increasingly difficult to balance budget and being competitive at a high level. We want to focus on young riders, but without lowering the level of the team. We made a courageous choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says his team\u2019s objective is to finish on the podium at a Grand Tour, with O\u2019Connor, as that was still better than a monument win.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we know we don\u2019t have a roster at the level of Pogacar and Vingegaard\u2019s super-teams,\u201d he said, adding the Grand Tour routes would be all studied before deciding on which one O\u2019Connor would target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Dunbar was 7th in the Giro two years ago and took two Vuelta stage wins last year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-229990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}