The Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz opens his European season this Wednesday with the participation in the Milano-Torino, where he will race for the first time in Europe with his new team, the American EF Education-EasyPost, with which he will wear his champion’s jersey national.
It will be the first test of the Carchense in the WorldTour with his new jersey, which will have the national tricolor after consecrating himself national road champion in February, a jersey that will also have his Olympic champion badges.
Carapaz’s European debut had to be postponed due to a tonsil operation in December, something that changed his preparation schedule for the Tour de France, which will be his big goal of the year.
“Richard Carapaz makes his pink debut in European races tomorrow (Wednesday). The Ecuadorian road champion will join his team in Italy for Milano-Torino ”, published the American formation, which will have the Locomotive with the number 42.
For this Italian classic, EF will have with Carapaz the Dutchman Marijn van den Berg, the South African Stefan de Bod, the British James Shaw, the Belgian Jens Keukeleire, the Pole Lukasz Wisniowski and the Italian Alberto Bettiol, who due to a fall on the Strade Bianche he did not race the Tirreno Adriatico, giving his place to Ecuadorian Jonathan Caicedo last week.
The Milano-Torino is a one-day event that in its latest editions has evolved in its layout until it is currently favorable for sprinters, “that is the beauty of the race, which reinvents itself every year and changes its appearance”, highlighted the organization of the race, which has the British Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) as defending champion.
This edition is the 104th of the competition and features a 192-kilometre route between Rho and Orbassano, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.
This year there will be 17 teams that start the test, of which 10 are in the WorldTour category. The race starts at 05:30 in Ecuador and can be followed by the Directv signal (612 and 1612) from 08:35.
While for the sprinters, the Milano-Torino is taken as a preparation for the Milano-Sanremo (Saturday), for the Ecuadorian it will be to complete a work of adaptation to the EF before what will be the Tour of Catalonia, a test in stages that begins on Monday in Barcelona, Spain. (D)
Source: Marcelo Gallo Oña, www.eluniverso.com