A Tour of Firsts

What a Tour de France for Richard Carapaz and the EF Education First-Easypost team!

With a searing solo attack to the mountaintop finish at SuperDévoluy, the “Jaguar of Tulcan”, stamped his name into Tour history forever. Not only because it was his first Stage win in the Tour, giving him the hat-trick of victories in all three Grand Tours, but because it was also the first-ever Tour de France Stage victory by an Ecuadorian. All in the same Tour where he became the first Ecuadorian to ever wear the yellow jersey, taking the race lead on Stage 3.

Chapeau, Richie. Chapeau.

What makes this historic victory even more impressive is that it almost didn’t happen.

After a crash forced him to abandon the 2023 Tour on just the 2nd stage, the champion of Ecuador immediately set his sights on 2024. Following an arduous recovery, and an entire year spent training towards success in this year’s Tour, he crashed yet again, this time sustaining facial injuries in the Tour de Suisse. His Tour chances seemed doomed.

But anyone who knows Richie, knows that beneath that genuine nice-guy exterior lies a will of absolute iron. Nothing was going to stop him from his shot at redemption. And on the mountainous terrain of Stage 17, nothing could.

Here’s how it happened:
From the start, this stage was a target for the EF squad. They knew it was going to be one of their last, best, chances at a stage victory, and the course perfectly suited Carapaz’s strengths. Unfortunately, a lot of other teams had the same idea, meaning that the race was an absolute dogfight from the gun, with teams sending guys up the road in a constant stream of attacks, all vying to get the magical combination of riders for a break to stay away.

The pace was relentless, with the peloton stretched along the road, and riders getting shelled out of the back. Just staying in contention was a full-gas effort, and early on, Carapaz missed the break that got away. The EF-Easypost team knew what they needed to do. Working together, they methodically worked their way back, eventually joining a 43-rider group at the front with 58km to go.

With under 20km to go, Simon Yates of team Jayco-AlUla, broke clear of the group, and bridged to the lead group, with Carapaz in hot pursuit. Carapaz caught Yates with just under 15km to go and rode with him for a bit, before launching a stinging attack. Yates couldn’t answer and Richie flew to the summit 17 seconds clear of his chasers, taking the stage for himself, his team, and all of Ecuador.

“This was a beautiful victory,” said Carapaz at the finish. “This is a day I will remember for the rest of my life.”

Richie, we couldn’t have said it better. Congratulations!