Richard Carapaz will not be afforded the opportunity to defend his Olympic gold medal in Paris.
Ecuador announced Monday that they’re giving their lone Olympic road race slot to INEOS Grenadiers’ all-rounder Jhonatan Narváez instead of EF Education-EasyPost’s Carapaz, who is the reigning gold medalist in the road race.
The small South American country qualified for just one spot in each the road race and the time trial, and there has been much grumbling over the last few weeks and months over who the country would send to Paris.
The rumors reached a fever pitch over the last few weeks after Narváez’s strong showing in the Giro d’Italia, where he won the opening stage and finished in the top five in three other stages. He finished the Giro twenty-eighth in the GC competition, twenty-seventh in the KOM, and ninth overall in the points classification, all in service of third-place finisher Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers).
Heading into the Giro, Narváez was coming off a strong spring that saw him finishing third in E3 Saxo Classic, fifth in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, and second overall in the Santos Tour Down Under. In February, he became Ecuador’s national road race champion, beating Carapaz by one spot. Two days prior, Carapaz won the Ecuadorian national time trial race, in which Narváez did not compete.
Carapaz, on the other hand, has had a rather inconspicuous spring. Beyond the Ecuadorian national races, his best finishes were a second overall in the Tour Colombia and a stage win in the Tour de Romandie. His classics season was full of mid-pack finishes; seventieth in Strade Bianche, fifty-first in Amstel Gold, and twenty-sixth in Liège-Bastonge-Liège.
But results only tell one part of the story. The parcours in Paris likely played a large role in the Ecuadorian Cycling Federation’s decision to select Narváez over Carapaz.
The course runs 273 kilometers but has just two thousand eight hundred meters of climbing. The mostly flat, punchy course strongly favors Narváez over the world-class climber Carapaz, who would no doubt fare better over longer, sustained climbs. And none of this mentions that the points Carapaz has earned over the last few seasons are a large part of the reason Ecuador even has a spot in the Olympic race.
“It’s more than obvious that the spot was earned by myself,” said Carapaz in one interview. “I’m not just saying that because I’m the reigning Olympic champion, but the majority of points we’ve gained as a country, I’ve brought in almost 50% of them. That’s not what I’m saying; that’s what the results say.”
Earlier this month, Carapaz openly criticized his nation’s selection process, saying that the system the Ecuadorian Cycling Federation rolled out favored Narváez. “It’s not fair,” Carapaz said. “It’s disappointing to me and to the whole country, or at least people who understand cycling.”
He also pointed out that the selection criteria were only made clear to him in March, despite the fact that the window for riders to start earning UCI points started in January.
A few days after his initial remarks, Carapaz issued another statement that read:
“I want to make it clear that I’ve never been opposed to the creation of a regulation for the selection process. However, the regulation created by the FEC is clearly skewed and lacking in the fundamental principles of fairness and sporting equality. Points are taken into account from January, but the regulation was not published until March when there was already a difference in points between the athletes. It’s clear the regulation created by the FEC only takes into account criteria that favor my compatriot, leaving aside any objective and fair consideration. This should have been sent out at the end of the Tokyo Olympics or at the end of last season when all the athletes could start from zero points and plan their seasons accordingly. However, its creation in an improvised way, and without room for maneuver, appears designed to keep me away from Paris and exonerate the president of the FEC of any responsibility.”
In response to Carapaz’s protest, Ecuador’s Ministry of Sport launched an investigation in early May. They requested that the Ecuadorian Cycling Federation delay its decision until the investigation was completed. The Federation did not agree to the delay and announced its decision on Monday.
Carapaz posted a video to his Twitter account on Monday evening. In it, he wished Narváezwell luck in the Olympics games and said his focus remained on the rest of his WorldTour season. “I want to wish Jhonatan the best of luck. May he do well, and may he represent us in the best way,” Carapaz said. “I continue to prepare for new objectives and new goals. Remember: never stop raising your voice for a fair sport.”
Michael Venutolo-Mantovani is a writer and musician based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He loves road and track cycling, likes gravel riding, and can often be found trying to avoid crashing his mountain bike.
