The EF Education-EasyPost team confirmed this Monday the roster that it will present to compete in the Tour de France, a test that it arrives at with the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz as leader in search of a podium that for the American squad has been elusive in recent years.
The first thing for the team was to ensure the participation of a leader with a recent presence on the Grande Boucle podium and for this 2023 he signed with Carapaz, third in 2021, a rider whom he will have as a priority in this edition, surrounded by a squad that “ He will look to take advantage of a combination of terrain and circumstances.”
“I am excited for the Tour to finally start. I am training for it and I have been away from home for a long time, I am ready for it to start, really”, said the Ecuadorian, Olympic road champion in Tokyo 2020.
For the first time Carapaz will be the leader for the Tour, despite the fact that he already participated in 2020 and 2021 with Ineos Grenadiers, editions in which he was finally the protagonist and came to command his squad due to different circumstances.
In 2020 he included it at the last minute and did not defend the title in the Giro d’Italia. That year he accompanied the Colombian Egan Bernal and after his retirement he had freedom to fight stages and the mountain classification.
The following year he arrived with a shared lead with Geraint Thomas, the British had a hard time in several stages and finally Carapaz took the lead of the team to take third place.
This 2023, the Olympic champion is the maximum bet of the EF. “Richard, we know what he is capable of, and we also know that he is excellent at reading a race and reacting. He is tremendously exciting to us. We will support him in his exploits and also keep our options open when it comes to attacking the run,” commented Jonathan Vaughters, EF Sporting Director.
With Carapaz will be in the French round the Colombians Rigoberto Urán and Esteban Chávez, the Costa Rican Andrei Amador, the Italian Alberto Bettiol, the British James Shaw, the Danish Magnus Cort and the American Neilson Powless, “an opportunistic and ambitious squad”, highlighted the pink squad.
“The team has a set of goals and the planning to achieve them. Our roster is built to adapt and take advantage of a combination of terrain and circumstances. It is a team of runners, above all, ”said the EF sports director with the announcement of his payroll.