Hugh Carthy and Rigoberto Urán will head the challenge of EF Education-EasyPost at the Giro d’Italia, while Richard Carapaz will be the team’s sole leader at the Tour de France.
Directeur sportif Juan Manuel Gárate confirmed the status of Urán and Carthy in an interview with Podcast Escapada. Both riders will use next week’s Tour of the Alps as their final preparation race ahead of the Giro, which gets underway on May 6.
“For the Giro d'Italia, we’ll have Rigoberto Urán and Hugh Carthy, and for the Tour de France, we'll go with Richard to do the best we can," Garáte said.
"For the Vuelta a España, we haven’t a defined leader yet. We always do a first part of the season up as far as the Tour. Then we see how that has gone and we plan the last part of the season.”
Carthy has lined out at the Giro on five previous occasions, placing 9th overall last year and 8th in 2021. This season, the Briton has placed 8th overall at Tirreno-Adriatico, where he caught the eye on the summit finish at Sassotetto.
Urán returns to the Giro for the first time since 2016, his debut season with Slipstream. He finished 7th overall on that occasion having previously placed on the podium of the Giro in 2013 and 2014.
Now 36th, the Colombian placed 10th overall at the Volta a Catalunya and 18th at the recent Itzulia Basque Country.
“He’s a very atypical rider,” said Gárate. “He's super professional, and even though he may come across as a fun-loving guy, he's extremely professional. He takes great care of himself. In the race he knows where to be at every moment, and he knows that if he has to go to the Giro, he knows what he's going for. You don't have to motivate him much more than that, because he's already going to do the best he can.”
The full EF Education-EasyPost team for the Giro has yet to be announced, but Magnus Cort – so impressive at the Volta ao Algarve – has long been pencilled into race the corsa rosa as he seeks to complete his collection of stage wins from all three Grand Tours.
