Richard Carapaz

An Olympic Games gold medallist and accomplished Grand Tour winner, Richard Carapaz made history in 2019 with is Giro d'Italia GC victory as the first Ecuadorian rider to win a Grand Tour. He recorded another piece of history for his home country the next year by winning Ecuador's first-ever cycling gold in the road race in Tokyo.

He turned pro in 2017 at Movistar, then was a hot commodity for his climbing and stage racing leadership, competing for three seasons at Ineos Grenadiers and then a three-year contract with EF Education-EasyPost from 2023 to 2025.

It was his middle season with EF Education in 2024 when he added his first stage win at the Tour de France, which put him in rare company with riders who have won stages in all three Grand Tours. In addition to his GC win at the Giro, he also finished second overall there and at the Vuelta a España, then wore the maillot jaune for one day in the first week of the Tour in his 2024 season, where also claimed the mountain classification title.

Carapaz was born May 29, 1993 in a small village near Tulcan, Ecuador, where his family had a farm. He turned riding a small BMX bike into a road career, moving to Colombia and then Spain to develop his talents on a global level.

He started out on the WorldTour with Movistar as a trainee during the 2016 season and turned pro with the Spanish squad for another three seasons. He took his first professional victories in 2018, including a stage at the Giro d’Italia and he also claimed fourth at his debut in the Italian Grand Tour.

It was just the next year that Carapaz leapt to the very top step of the podium in Italy. In a commanding performance that included two stage victories he pulled on the maglia rosa on stage 14 and held it right through the final time trial in Verona. There he claimed overall victory ahead of Vincenzo Nibali and Primož Roglič.

2020 brought a shift to Ineos for three seasons, and with the British team Carapaz made it onto the GC podium steps of all three Grand Tours, coming second in the Vuelta in 2020 behind Roglič, third in the 2021 edition of the Tour and then second at the Giro in 2022. During that stretch of three seasons he also claimed three La Vuelta stages, the Tour de Suisse overall and the biggest one-day win of his career, gold in the Olympic Games road race, where he dropped his main rivals on the last two climbs.

In 2023 Carapaz made the shift to EF Education-EasyPost. He started the year with victory at the national championships, he raced the season wearing the distinctive yellow, blue and red kit of the Ecuadorian champion.

He retained the Ecuadorian time trial title to start 2024, finishing second in the road race, and went directly to Tour Colombia to win the mountain classification and finish second overall. While he managed only a top 20 finish at the Tour de France in July, he won his first stage at Superdévoluy, took third on stage 20's summit finish at Col de la Couillole and secured the mountain classification. That set him up for a successful Vuelta, where he finished fourth overall.

Key Results

2024

🥇 Stage and mountain classification at Tour de France

🥇 Stage and mountains classification at Tour Colombia

🥇 National championship, time trial

🥈 National championship, road race

🥈 Stage at Vuelta a España

4th GC at Vuelta a España

2023

🥇 National championship, road race

🥈 Pan-American time trial championship

🥈 Stage at Critérium du Dauphiné

🥈 Giro della Toscana - Memorial Alfredo Martini 

🥈 Tre Valli Varesine 

2022

🥇 Three stages and mountain classification at Vuelta a España

🥇 One stage at Volta Catalunya

🥇 National championship, time trial

🥈 National championship, road race

🥈 GC at Giro d'Italia

🥈 GC at Volta Catalunya

🥉 Two stages at Giro d'Italia

2021

🥇 Olympic Games road race

🥇 One stage and GC at Tour de Suisse

🥉 Two stages and GC at Tour de France

2020

🥇 One stage at tour de Pologne

🥈 Two stages and GC at Vuelta a España

🥈 Two stages and mountain classification at Tour de France

🥉 One stage and mountain classification at Vuelta a España

2019

🥇 Two stages and GC at Giro d'Italia

🥇 One stage and GC at Vuelta Asturias

🥉 GC at Vuelta a Burgos