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Richard Carapaz discussion thread

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If Carapaz will be able to drop Hindley in mountains. Then today he made a good move. Otherwise he might have spent that energy he would need later on. In addition Ineos unperformed. That is both Bora and Bahrain had two and he was isolated. Attacks would have come and he would need to cover them. Such circumstances likely pushed him into attacking early.
 
Carapaz made a tactical blunder, attacking from too far out as he did. Had he waited to attack when Yates did, I bet he would have won and gained some time with it.

But if he had waited to attack the others would have been fresher, too, including Yates, who would probably still have been let go if he had gotten a gap. Also the group would presumably have been bigger during the last 20 km, so the final would have been harder for him to control.

But if his early attack had worked out he could've been a lot closer to the overall victory now.
 
In my opinion Carapaz is overrated as a climber, he doesn´t have the stamina to go solo climbing for more than 2 or 3 kms, that is the reason why he attacked so late in Covatilla, Angliru and in others ocassion, because he knows his body well, and the fact thar he will be in danger of blowing up like in Romme-Colmbiere if he tries earlier. He has a great kick (specially in moments when the pace is not very high) and a good firsts 2-3 kms after that kick, but can´t sustain it with tempo for a whole climb.

So I believe that with his move he was expecting the others to stop and play cat and mouse like in 2019 but with Peio there this was not the case.

If he wins this it will be due to his consistency not climbing superiority, but in Fact i think he is going to struggle this week against Hindley (maybe also Landa but not so sure about it).
 
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In my opinion Carapaz is overrated as a climber, he doesn´t have the stamina to go solo climbing for more than 2 or 3 kms, that is the reason why he attacked so late in Covatilla, Angliru and in others ocassion, because he knows his body well, and the fact thar he will be in danger of blowing up like in Romme-Colmbiere if he tries earlier. He has a great kick (specially in moments when the pace is not very high) and a good firsts 2-3 kms after that kick, but can´t sustain it with tempo for a whole climb.

So I believe that with his move he was expecting the others to stop and play cat and mouse like in 2019 but with Peio there this was not the case.

If he wins this it will be due to his consistency not climbing superiority, but in Fact i think he is going to struggle this week against Hindley (maybe also Landa but not so sure about it).
Bang on!
Was tough to see him struggle so badly in the final kms
 
Richard Carapaz signs for EF Education-EasyPost


filters:quality(75)
 
Anderis must be stoked about this, lol. Im genuinely happy for this guy, I feel like I have read so many disappointed posts from him over the years.
I can't really complain too much about this signing. EF needed a new big leader after Uran has declined and with EF's budget it's difficult to win such quality riders as Caparaz.

I'm a learned pessimist, thoguh and I still have plenty of concerns. One is that Carapaz is a rider that doesn't tend to be in great form in many races during a season, outside his main goals. That's not a problem for a team like Ineos if he can still deliver during GTs, but at a small budget team like EF it's a concern that their best paid rider could have a crash during a GT but he wouldn't have had many results in the spring either and then they're suddenly not in a very good place regarding the whole season quite easily.
I also fear Carapaz may eventually feel a bit too comfy. EF are signing a lot of riders that seem to be friends with him and they don't have a lot money to sign guys who could pressure Carapaz out of the leadership role if he doesn't perform very well etc. I hope I'm wrong about this and the good atmosphere will help him excel instead of making him lazy.

If I'm a Carapaz fan, I wouldn't be too happy, lol. Very few riders have not underperformed at EF in the last 2 years. I somehow doubt he will perform as consistently at GTs as he did at Ineos. But for EF it's definetely the biggest signing at least since 2015, but maybe ever, as Uran was at his low in 2015 while Carapaz still performed well in 2022.
 
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I can't really complain too much about this signing. EF needed a new big leader after Uran has declined and with EF's budget it's difficult to win such quality riders as Caparaz.

I'm a learned pessimist, thoguh and I still have plenty of concerns. One is that Carapaz is a rider that doesn't tend to be in great form in many races during a season, outside his main goals. That's not a problem for a team like Ineos if he can still deliver during GTs, but at a small budget team like EF it's a concern that their best paid rider could have a crash during a GT but he wouldn't have had many results in the spring either and then they're suddenly not in a very good place regarding the whole season quite easily.
I also fear Carapaz may eventually feel a bit too comfy. EF are signing a lot of riders that seem to be friends with him and they don't have a lot money to sign guys who could pressure Carapaz out of the leadership role if he doesn't perform very well etc. I hope I'm wrong about this and the good atmosphere will help him excel instead of making him lazy.

If I'm a Carapaz fan, I wouldn't be too happy, lol. Very few riders have not underperformed at EF in the last 2 years. I somehow doubt he will perform as consistently at GTs as he did at Ineos. But for EF it's definetely the biggest signing at least since 2015, but maybe ever, as Uran was at his low in 2015 while Carapaz still performed well in 2022.
Let's hope Carapaz has a good Vuelta and realizes that he's in a future good place with EF. It's a team thing where most riders are not discardable.
 
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This move somehow contributes to spreading GC talent across teams, but I'm not sure he'll get adecuate suppport for the big races.

However EF do have some good riders. If they put everything in the Tour basket they can field a very decent support team.

I don't think he can win against the new superstars, but that's on him - I really like him, but he's not the very best of the best, so it's always going to be hard for him. Personally, I do like the move and am interested to see how it plays out.
 

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