Few riders can claim they have had the better of Primoz Roglič in a Grand Tour, but Richard Carapaz is one of them. Back when he won the 2019 Giro d'Italia, and six years later, his EF Education-Easy Post team management are confident the Ecuadorian racer will be once again in the thick of the GC battle.
Carapaz had two difficult years in the Tour de France on the GC front - in 2023 he abandoned on stage 1 with a crash, and in 2024 in a notable uptick he secured both a stage win and the mountains ranking, but remained more uneven overall. However, at the end of the 2024 Vuelta España, Carapaz's delight at finishing fourth on GC was palpable, and he himself said it marked a return of his desire to re-conquer the Giro.
