It has been a long time coming. After two years and four months racing in the pink of EF Education-EasyPost, Simon Carr took his first victory for the American squad on Friday at the Tour of the Alps.
The 24-year old took his win after spending 82km in the breakaway on a rain-affected stage five to Brunico, in northeast Italy. It is the second win of his career, after victory at the Prueba Villafranca-Ordiziako Klasika while riding for Nippo Delko One Provence back in 2020.
After being cruelly caught by the peloton on stage two this week, the climber, born in Hereford but raised in Occitanie in the South of France, explained his huge sense of relief at grabbing his second-ever professional win.
“It was a really tough day today,” Carr said. “Also it’s been a while since my first win, so not just today, but there’s been a lot of races where I’ve been trying to get there. When you finally succeed, then it's such a nice moment.”
Carr has often come alive in the mountains. When he launched a solo move out of the day's breakaway on the tough Mühlbach climb, he showed no signs of being affected by the injuries and illness that hampered his last two years of racing.
“I think any win is really important, I had a good start with this team in 2021, and last year wasn’t so good with illness and injury,” he added. “I’ve been coming back strong this year, and already in the Volta a Catalunya, and then a month ago I was feeling good in a few breakaways, so then there were a good few opportunities, I just wanted to seize those and of course, it has now paid off.”
The EF Education-EasyPost rider will not be riding the Giro d’Italia in support of Hugh Carthy, and will also skip the Tour de France, but is on the cards to head to the Vuelta a España in August. Instead, he will be looking to build on this momentum at smaller races.
“I’ve done two Giro’s in the past, I think for me this year it was more important to focus on some non-WorldTour races and try and get some wins in those,” he said. “That was the goal. So hopefully not going to the Giro will mean I have more opportunities to win again.”
“The next goal for me is the Route d’Occitanie. It’s where I grew up, so I really want to do well there and maybe test my GC legs.”
