.jpg) Carapaz at the2022 Strade Bianche | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Richard Antonio Carapaz Montenegro |
| Nickname | La Locomotora (The Locomotive) El Jaguar de Tulcan Billy[1] |
| Born | (1993-05-29)29 May 1993 (age 32) Tulcán Canton,Ecuador |
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[2] |
| Weight | 62 kg (137 lb; 9 st 11 lb)[3] |
| Team information | |
| Current team | EF Education–EasyPost |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Climbing specialist |
| Amateur teams | |
| 2011 | Panavial–Coraje Carchense |
| 2013 | RPM Ecuador |
| 2014 | Panavial–GAD Carchi |
| 2015 | Strongman–Campagnolo |
| 2016 | Lizarte |
| Professional teams | |
| 2016 | Strongman–Campagnolo–Wilier |
| 2016 | Movistar Team(stagiaire) |
| 2017–2019 | Movistar Team[4] |
| 2020–2022 | Team Ineos[5][6] |
| 2023– | EF Education–EasyPost |
| Major wins | |
Grand Tours
| |
Medal record | |
Richard Antonio Carapaz Montenegro (born 29 May 1993) is an Ecuadorian professionalroad racing cyclist who currently rides forUCI WorldTeamEF Education–EasyPost.[7][8] Carapaz won the2019 Giro d'Italia, becoming the first Ecuadorian rider to win the race.[9] In July 2021, he won the gold medal in theroad race at the2020 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Ecuadorian cyclist to win a medal and only thesecond Ecuadorian in any sport to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. In doing so, he became the first cyclist to achieve an Olympic road race gold medal and a podium finish in each of the threeGrand Tours.[citation needed]
Carapaz was born in El Carmelo,Tulcán Canton. Whilst at school, he was mentored by one of his teachers, former Olympic racing cyclistJuan Carlos Rosero, who started a cycling club at the school. The club has also produced a number of other professional riders, includingJhonatan Narváez andJonathan Caicedo.[10] Prior to taking up cycling, Carapaz competed for his school as a runner.[11]
Carapaz began his career with amateur teams in Ecuador, Colombia and Spain. On 28 July 2016, he joinedMovistar Team fromLizarte as a trainee for the remainder of the 2016 season.[12][13] He signed as a professional rider ahead of the 2017 season.[14]
In his first full year for theMovistar Team, Carapaz came second in both theGP Industria & Artigianato and theRoute du Sud.[15][16] He made hisGrand Tour debut in theVuelta a España, finishing 36th overall.[17]
His first professional victories came in 2018, with a stage and the overall in theVuelta a Asturias.[18] He won stage 8 of theGiro d'Italia, becoming the first Ecuadorian cyclist to win aGrand Tour stage.[19] He finished in the top ten in five other stages of that race, and finished fourth in the general classification. He also completed the2018 Vuelta a España in 18th place.[20]
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Carapaz again won theVuelta a Asturias in 2019,[21] and went on to win the2019 Giro d'Italia. After multiple crashes late in stage 4 saw several riders go down and a select group break off on the front, Carapaz made an attack in the final kilometre to take the stage win.[22] On Stage 13, Carapaz attacked and got clear of the two favourites for overall victory,Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain–Merida) andPrimož Roglič (Team Jumbo–Visma). This placed him among the other favourites, two minutes down on Roglič.[23] On stage 14, Carapaz again attacked and won the stage by almost two minutes, taking the general classification lead.[24] Carapaz successfully defended his lead for the rest of the race to take the overall victory. Carapaz became the first Ecuadorian rider to win a Grand Tour and the second South American rider to win the Giro, after ColombianNairo Quintana in2014.[25]
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Carapaz joinedTeam Ineos at the beginning of the 2020 season on a three-year deal.[26] His first win for the team came on 7 August, on the third stage of theTour de Pologne: on the uphill drag to the finish, Carapaz made an attack in the final kilometre and held off the peloton.[27] In theTour de France, he came second in both stages 16 and 18. On the latter stage, he finished alongside teammateMichał Kwiatkowski, who won the stage, while Carapaz took the lead in themountains classification fromTadej Pogačar.[28] However, two days later, Pogačar retook the lead, and also won the stage and moved into the overall race lead; Carapaz ultimately finished second in the mountains classification.[29]
In theVuelta a España, Carapaz was once again a challenger for overall victory and traded places with defending championPrimož Roglič several times for the race lead. He first took the red jersey of the race leader on stage 6 from Roglič.[30] On stage 10, Carapaz relinquished it back to Roglič, who won the day's stage, though the two were tied on time and had to be differentiated by tiebreakers.[31] Carapaz regained the race lead briefly after stage 12,[32] but lost it for good to Roglič after the thirteenth stage.[33] On the mountainous penultimate stage, with Roglič, Carapaz, andHugh Carthy locked in a three-way battle for the overall victory, Carapaz attacked but only managed to take 15 seconds on Carthy and 21 seconds on Roglič. In doing so, he secured a second place overall finish.[34]
Carapaz took his first victory of the 2021 season on 10 June, winning the mountainous fifth stage of theTour de Suisse.[35] In so doing, he took the general classification lead, which he defended over the remaining five stages to take the overall win by 17 seconds ahead ofRigoberto Urán.[36]
Carapaz was named to theIneos Grenadiers'sTour de France squad as one of four possible contenders for the general classification alongsideTao Geoghegan Hart,Richie Porte, andTour winnerGeraint Thomas.[37][38] After the other three riders were involved in crashes and lost time in the first week, Carapaz emerged as the sole leader.[39] He would eventually finish third overall.[40]
Carapaz won theOlympic road race, finishing over a minute clear of the rest of the field. He initially followed an attack byBrandon McNulty with 25 kilometres (16 mi) to go, but with 5.8 kilometres (3.6 mi) left, he pulled away from McNulty and rode across the finish line solo.[41][42][43]
.jpg)
Carapaz began the 2022 season at theÉtoile de Bessèges in early February, in which he crashed during stage 3 and abandoned prior to the last stage, having already lost over nine minutes to eventual winnerBenjamin Thomas.[44] His bad luck continued at theTour de la Provence about a week later, from which he was forced to withdraw after testing positive forCOVID-19 despite showing no symptoms.[45] However, Carapaz took his first win of the season later that month at theEcuadorian National Time Trial Championships, which was also his first national title at the elite level.[46] His next important success came during stage 6 of the2022 Volta a Catalunya when he went on a long-distance attack withSergio Higuita. The pair stayed away for over 100 kilometers and raced all the way to the line with Carapaz taking the stage win and moving into 2nd on GC.[47]
On 19 August 2022 it was announced Carapaz would joinEF Education–EasyPost from the 2023 season on a three-year contract.[48][49]
Despite a crash during the2024 Tour de Suisse and subsequent illness,[50] Carapaz entered the2024 Tour de France with EF Education-EasyPost, aiming for stage wins.[51] He took the yellow jersey after Stage 3, becoming the first Ecuadorian rider to do so,[52] before losing it toTadej Pogačar after Stage 4.[53] He went on to win Stage 17 in a solo finish,[54][55] crossing the finish line more than 7 minutes before Pogačar (27th place),[56] who still held the jersey at the time. By winning this stage, he became the first Ecuadorian to win a Tour de France stage, and the first to win a stage at each of the Grand Tours.[57] Carapaz took thepolka–dot jersey from Pogačar after Stage 19,[58] and by the end of Stage 20 he had secured a large enough lead in the KoM category for a win to be inevitable. This made Carapaz the first Ecuadorian to win the classification.[59]
Due to a severe case ofgastroenteritis from which he was unable to recover for some time, he announced in a post on his Instagram account that he will not be able to participate in the2025 Tour de France, which begins on July 5, 2025, and that he will try to recover to prepare for the2025 Vuelta a España at the end of August 2025.[60]
Road race, National Junior Road Championships
Road race,Pan American Under-23 Road Championships
OverallVuelta de la Juventud de Colombia OverallVuelta a Navarra
Young rider classification
OverallVuelta a Asturias after Stages 6–13
OverallGiro d'Italia OverallVuelta a Asturias
Points classification
after Stages 6–9 & 12
after Stages 2–4
after Stages 18–19
Combativity award Stage 16
Road race,Olympic Games OverallTour de Suisse Time trialMountains classification after Stages 14–19Combativity award Stage 14 Road race,National Road Championships
Time trial Time trialMountains classification after Stage 3
Combativity award Stage 15, 19 & Overall Points classification Mountains classification| Grand Tour general classification results | |||||||||
| Grand Tour | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giro d'Italia | — | 4 | 1 | — | — | 2 | — | — | 3 |
| Tour de France | — | — | — | 13 | 3 | — | DNF | 17 | — |
| Vuelta a España | 36 | 18 | — | 2 | DNF | 14 | — | 4 | — |
| Major stage race general classification results | |||||||||
| Major stage race | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
 Paris–Nice | — | 11 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
 Tirreno–Adriatico | — | — | 20 | — | — | DNF | — | DNF | 18 |
 Volta a Catalunya | — | — | 26 | NH | 21 | 2 | 51 | — | 10 |
| Tour of the Basque Country | — | — | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | |
| Tour de Romandie | 38 | — | — | — | — | — | 7 | — | |
 Critérium du Dauphiné | 44 | — | — | — | — | — | 36 | — | — |
| Tour de Suisse | — | — | — | NH | 1 | — | — | DNF | — |
| Event | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Olympic Games | Road race | Not held | 1 | Not held | — | NH | |||
| Time trial | — | — | |||||||
 World Championships | Road race | 71 | DNF | 22 | — | — | — | — | |
| Time trial | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| National Championships | Road race | — | — | — | — | 2 | 1 | 2 | — |
| Time trial | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | |
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
| IP | In progress |
| NH | Not held |
Tour de Suisse winners | |||||
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