Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz he felt a moral blow seeing himself forced to abandon the Tour de France in the first stage, after he suffered a fall on the way to Bilbao, but immediately tried to recover and search the following goals, which can go through the Tour of Spain.

“emotionally affectedhe made a great journey of preparation for the Tour, which lasted several months, for him and for the whole team and in a few hours the dream ends“, pointed out this Sunday the sports director of EF training, Juanma Gárate.

Richard Carapaz: We will come back stronger

Third in the 2021 Tour, he fell 20 kilometers before the finish line in Bilbao and, although he managed to finish the stage, 15 minutes late, the tests he underwent showed that he had suffered a fracture in his left kneeso he gave up on the test.

“But He is a runner with a lot of determination, with characterwho has been through similar situations in his career and he immediately spoke about preparing the next target“, he added.

After not participating in the Giro d’Italia, which he won in 2019 and in which he was second in 2022. the cyclist set his sights on the Tour of Spainwhere he was runner-up in 2020.

“Tomorrow they are doing another MRI, they are flying to Ecuador and we will have to evaluate when we have the results of that test. But If the injuries are like what we saw yesterday, he may participate in the VueltaGarate said.

The sports director praised the courage of the cyclist who, despite the injury, finished the stage and gave up only when medical examinations showed that he could not continue.

“When I was on earth he told me that he couldn’t move his leg from the blow, but when he saw that he could bend it, we decided to put him on the bike, it was part of the descent, it hurt, but he was able to continue. But after the medical evaluations are done, it is impossible,” he said. (D)