Richard Carapaz, the reigning Tour de France king of the mountains, will miss this 12 months’s race after creating a gastrointestinal an infection coaching at residence in Ecuador.
“Final week, he started experiencing stomach ache and a excessive fever,” his EF staff mentioned on their web site. “[Doctors] have suggested towards long-haul journey and competitors at the moment. Because of this, Richard is not going to participate on this 12 months’s Tour de France.”
Carapaz completed third within the Giro d’Italia this month and would have led the EF Professional Biking staff on the Tour, which begins on 5 July.
“We’re all gutted for Richard,” mentioned Jonathan Vaughters, the EF chief govt. “He got here out of the Giro with superb kind. He sacrificed so much to get to that degree, so the timing actually couldn’t be worse. We all know how a lot the Tour means to him, so to lose him this near the race is an actual blow.”
Carapaz, the 2020 Olympic champion and 2019 Giro winner, gained the climbing and combativity prizes in final 12 months’s Tour de France.
The staff mentioned the 32-year-old “will take a number of weeks off to let his physique totally get better” after which shift his focus to the least prestigious of the Grand Excursions beginning on 23 August. “His purpose? Win the Vuelta a España,” mentioned the staff.