Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) took the yellow jersey from Tadej Pogačar on Stage 3 of the Tour de France and became the first Ecuadorian rider ever to wear it. Carapaz won the Giro in 2019, an Olympic gold in 2021, and the mountains classification in the Vuelta in 2022. But this was the first time he’s been in the lead on the tour.
“Our Olympic champion from Ecuador seized the race’s maillot jaune with a daring dash to the line down the Corse Unione Sovietica, after a powerful leadout from his EF Education-EasyPost teammates,” according to his team..
Carapaz kissed his maillot jaune on the podium and wore the jersey across the Alps and into France on Stage 4. He knew how special the opportunity was, especially because even a few weeks ago, it wasn’t clear if he’d make it to the Tour. Carapaz pulled out of the Tour de Suisse, having sustained injuries in a crash.
But yesterday, he was on top of the world. “It’s a dream for me because of all the respect I have for the Tour to wear yellow at the best race in the world. I’ve always prepared so much for this, and today, to enjoy this moment is huge,” he said in a press release.
“We knew we had the opportunity. We knew that the finish was the first sprint of the Tour. There were many nerves, and we had to be very well-positioned. There were many risks, like crashing, and the team did such an amazing job where they left me at one kilometer to go, and from there, I could defend myself as well as I could, and then Marijn and I just went full into the finish line. It was spectacular.
“I worked so hard for this moment. It also means a lot to my country. There are not a lot of us in the WorldTour, and I hope this helps cycling so it can grow in my country.”
EF Pro Cycling founder and CEO Jonathan Vaughters said, “Everyone on the team understands how talented Richie is. He’s just an incredibly talented bike rider. But obviously, he had some pretty bad luck on his run into the Tour de France. At the Tour de Suisse, he had an infection and had to take antibiotics. It’s really amazing that he’s been able to recover from all of that and perform at the level that he has.
“And then today we executed on kind of a crazy plan. Basically, the whole team was giving Richie a leadout into a field sprint. We know he’s not going to win the field sprint, but the hope was he would finish like 15th, and that would be enough to break the tie, and he'd be able to wear the yellow jersey. Frankly, it’s rare when a plan works out like you want it to.”
Micah Ling is a freelance writer who lives in the mountains of Colorado. She splits her free time between mountain biking and trail running.
