Carapaz favorite to continue Ineos’ success at Giro d’Italia

MILAN: Ineos Grenadiers will be looking to make it a hat trick of victories at the Giro d’Italia, with Richard Carapaz the favorite at the Italian grand tour.

The first of the year’s three grand tours will be without the two Slovenians who have dominated cycling in recent years: Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar.

The past two Giro champions, Egan Bernal and Tao Geoghegan Hart, also won’t be competing, with both Ineos riders recovering from injury and illness. But the powerhouse team has another strong contender in 2019 winner Carapaz.

When Carapaz became the first Ecuadorian to win a grand tour he was competing for Movistar and it was the only edition over the past four years that Ineos — or as it was previously known, Team Sky — did not emerge triumphant in Italy.

The 28-year-old Carapaz also won the road race at last year’s rescheduled Olympic Games and finished third in the Tour de France as well as second in the 2020 Spanish Vuelta.

However, Carapaz hasn’t raced since March — opting instead for altitude training in Ecuador — and there are two other riders who have already ended up with the famous maglia rosa (winner’s pink jersey): Vincenzo Nibali (2013 and 2016) and Tom Dumoulin (2017).

“It’s a goal that I’ve given myself this year, it’s to do really well and try to win a second grand tour,” Carapaz said Wednesday. “I think it’s a great goal for me and I’ve thought a lot about it and now we’re almost at the first great chance.

“We’re obviously coming here with a lot of hopes that everything is going to go well and I think my preparation has been quite good … so now we’re facing this first grand tour in a very positive mindset and above all thinking we can do in the best way possible as we have always done.”

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