EF Education-EasyPost promised to fight back after team leader Richard Carapaz fractured his patella during stage 1, with Neilson Powless immediately going in the break on stage 2 to defend his king of the mountains polka-dot jersey.
Powless nabbed the KOM points over the climbs of Udana, Aztiria, Alkiza and Gurutze, and now heads the mountain classification with a four-point lead.
“It's still a narrow lead. If I miss one breakaway in the mountains my lead might be gone. It's a long way to Paris - I have a big fight ahead of me but that would be very nice. I'm already in love with [the polka dot jersey] it's just a matter of whether I can hold onto it.”
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After losing his breakaway companions on the route to the Jaizkibel climb, Powless could not hold off the chasing peloton.
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“With only three riders, it was going to be very difficult to make it to the finish. As we came closer and closer the roads started to get a bit wet and I started to believe it was possible," Powless said. "It may have been possible if we all stayed together before the final climb."
“All I could do was ride threshold in Jaizkibel - I needed to go at least one minute faster to hold off the bunch. It was close but unfortunately, it wasn't my day.”
The American WorldTour team were left saddened and dejected after the finish of stage 1 but picked themselves up for Sunday's stage.
“It’s tough, sometimes pro cycling is sh*t and it was our turn,” Esteban Chaves told the team’s video crew. “But we believe in keeping fighting, we’ll do good stuff.”
EF Education-EasyPost will now focus on winning stages and the polka-dot jersey. We can expect to see Powless defend the polka-dot jersey for as long as possible in the Pyrenees and target stages along with Chaves, Magnus Cort, Rigoberto Uran, Alberto Bettiol and even Tour debutant James Shaw.
The riders had talked about helping Carapaz target the general classification in the final days before the Grand Départ but team manager Jonathan revealed to Cyclingnews that was never the case.
“We’ve been through this situation many times, it’s nothing new,” Vaughters told Cyclingnews stoically, well aware of the contrasting and emotional highs and lows the Tour de France can create in a split second.
“Nothing really changes because we were never really riding for the classification with him in the first place.”
“That’s the assumption everyone made but he wasn’t ready to ride GC in this race, so we were never riding a GC race. Yesterday we thought Richard had a good shot at winning the stage but bluntly speaking, he doesn’t have the foundation because of his tonsil issues earlier in the year.”
“He went down and went down hard and fast in the crash. He cracked his patella and there’s no way back from that, so his Tour de France is over.”
“The other riders always had freedom to race for stages, we were never riding a GC race, that’s the reality of it.”
Carapaz spoke briefly in a video message before travelling home to start his recovery.
“I wanted to say hi to everyone and also everybody who has been part of this big project,” he said.
“I’m okay… Thank you for your message of support and thanks to the team who has always looked after me. I will come back stronger.”
Shaw initially stopped to wait for Carapaz after his crash but he and the team soon realised the Ecuadorian’s race was over, even if Carapaz fought the pain to finish the stage.
“To lose him is bad and there’s also the effort he’s put in to be here as well. The months away on training camps. It sort of rendered it a bit, not pointless, but useless almost,” Shaw said before finding a new focus.
“We’ve always had the plan to push with Bettiol, Magnus, and Neilson for stages. So it’s not like we brought a team of domestiques solely here to ride for Richard. So we are still looking forward to the race and we’re still here. If anything, it's just more important to put those guys in the right place to fulfil what they can achieve physically.
“We’ve not packed our bags ready to go home. I think the highest chance of us winning a jersey in Paris is the polka dot jersey. Whether that’s with Neilson or with someone else yet to be seen.
Shaw has a support role in the EF Education-EasyPost Tour team but may now have opportunities himself.
“The loss of Richard could potentially open a few doors for myself. Every cloud and all that… “ he said.
“I’m happy to be here and motivated to be here. I can play my cards right and look towards the breakaways in the second and third week.
I’m still under the same instructions: Help the guys to get in the breaks as much as we can and when the door opens, go through it.”
