Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) took his second win of the season at the Classic Alpes-Maritimes , soloing to victory at the mountainous one-day race.
The Ecuadorian won his first race in his national colours for his new squad, beating Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën) by 12 seconds at the top of the Valberg in southeast France. Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) rounded out the podium 38 seconds back after getting the beating of Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) and Cristian Rodríguez (Arkéa-Samsic) in the race for the line.
“I’m happy,” Carapaz said. “It’s important for me to give back the confidence the team puts into me. Today, everyone worked very hard and did a spectacular job. I think we showed off what we had, that we were confident with our plan, that we had somebody like me to finish it off in the best way possible. I think we’ve done everything on point today, and we are happy for the win.”
EF Education-EasyPost had control of the race in the final, pacing for Carapaz up the last climb of the day, the Valberg. Carapaz was the first to go from the elite leading group that had survived from the peloton, and his attack was the decisive one on the day.
At 7km to go he went clear of the group following a final pacemaking effort courtesy of Mark Padun. The 30-year-old looked set to solo home for a comfortable victory, but still had to hold off Gall, who emerged from a chase group […]
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