After david gaudu ed Enric Mas Nicolau è Richard Carapaz the third disappointed of the Dauphiné. The Olympic champion finished 36th overall, more than 35 minutes behind jonas vingegaard. Worrying data in view of the Tour de France.
The season of the rider of the EF Education-Easy Post It's been a roller coaster ride. A victory and a setback. But if in the previous months things were generally under control, now that time is running out, it's red alert. Or at least orange.
Seesaw 2023
Carapaz made his debut by winning the national title in February, then suffered a severe tonsillitis. He arrived late in Europe and was almost always forced to chase fitness, so much so that he missed the Ardennes. After the Basque Country, in fact, there was another stop for the Ecuadorian.
But when he returned at the end of May won the Mercan'Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes. Okay, it's not a top-level race, but it still showed excellent signs.
Signals that he himself had interpreted as follows: «This victory – Carapaz had said – It gives me confidence for the Tour. Now I know I'm on the right track and that I have to continue like this at the Dauphiné."
Wet powders
And at Dauphiné he indeed continued to attack, as is in his DNA, but the result was not the same.
It was just right Richard led the way among the top riders on the final climb of the fifth stage, only to then bounce back heavily. Yet he had started well with a second-place finish in the second leg. But perhaps it was precisely these results that led him astray.
At EF they seem calm. Unofficial rumours have spoken of a predictable drop after five days of running at these levels. After all, it had been a while since Carapaz had faced certain opponents.
However, some doubts remain, such as for example in the time trial stage. Okay, Carapaz is not a time trialist and it was a stage for specialists, but he took over 2'30”, doing worse even than Bernal and above all Gaudu who is less of a time trialist than him.
And in the final stage, he gained half an hour, arriving with the last group, escorted by the trusty Amador and Arcas. It's clear he wasn't the rider we know.
The South American press wasn't kind either. "Carapaz has had serious difficulties. Will he now have time to recover for the Tour?" And again: «It's not the Carapaz that was there Movistar and that has arrived at the Ineos Grenadiers».
From Andorra to the Tour
There's been no comment from the team, and Richard hasn't made any major statements since the Dauphiné either. During the race, he kept saying he was fighting, but there's a difference between saying and doing.
However, a correct interpretation can be reconstructed from the words of Nate Wilson, EF performance manager. Wilson had essentially said that Carapaz and his companions had worked well and hard at Font Romeu, A Pyrenean location at 1.800 meters above sea level. He added that it was important to reach the Dauphiné, if not at 100 percent, then close to it. Otherwise, we would emerge from this race worse than we had started.
So It is reasonable to assume that once they saw that certain over-revvings were becoming boomerangs, Carapaz and his staff decided to "take their foot off the accelerator" and they only thought about finishing the race, doing a block of work, as they say today.
In recent days Carapaz has again gone up to altitude, in Andorra, with some of his teammates.
"In this camp," Wilson said, "the first step was recovery. Then we started doing the last little block before the Tour: big climbs, even behind the scooter to get a good race pace."
Will it be enough? We'll find out in a few days on the roads of the Tour.
