Hugh Carthy: Now we can write this chapter off and really move forward

It may not have been the best of seasons in 2022 for Hugh Carthy, or for his EF Education-EasyPost team for that matter, but it could hardly be called disastrous when even between repeated runs ins with illness and the threat of relegation hanging over the squad he still delivered ninth at the Giro d’Italia and then, in his last race of the season, took second on GC at the Tour de Langkawi.

“I think this race is a nice way to wrap up the season,” said Carthy on the sidelines of the hot and humid Tour de Langkawi, the day after vaulting into second spot on GC with a powerful performance on the steep pitches of the Genting Highlands climb. 

“It's not been a great season. I've had some good results in the Giro, a top ten, and it's a quite strong performance there. It still wasn't what I was after this year, which has been up and down with illness and stuff. So yeah, it's not been a perfect year but I think you sometimes have these years in your career where things don't go too well.”

In 2019 Carthy delivered his first WorldTour stage win at the Tour de Suisse and also marked out his Grand Tour GC potential with 11th at the Giro. A year later, he stepped onto the overall podium of a Grand Tour for the first time with third at the Vuelta a España, where he also won a stage. Then in 2021, it was an eighth place at the Giro d’Italia, a stage win at Vuelta a Burgos but a difficult Vuelta a España, where he abandoned on stage 7. He proceeded to have a challenging last part of the season to lead into 2022, where various illnesses hit, including COVID-19 . 

“I think I'd have want wanted more if I'd been saying in January what I wanted out of the season, but if someone also had said you are going to have a bad year but you're still going to finish top ten in a Grand Tour then I probably would have signed up for that in January as well,” Carthy told Cyclingnews in the Malaysian town of Sabak Bernam, as the race worked its way up Peninsular Malaysia to the island of Langkawi. “To be philosophical about it, it could have been a lot worse, but it could have been better and there is still stuff to take away from it."

The strong climbing performance that delivered Carthy a podium spot at the Tour de Langkawi may have been positive note on which to finish the season, but his optimism for the years ahead is based on more than individual results.

“It's been a bit of a transitional period for the team since the pandemic, with riders leaving, riders coming,” said Carthy. “It's really changed the dynamic of the team. I think now if we can settle into some consistency the next couple of years and, and find our way again – now with EF still here to stay and all the sponsors here to stay – I think we could really start making some tracks like we were in 2019, 2020 before the pandemic hit hard.”

Growth to survival to growth again

In 2019 EF Education was comfortably ensconced in 11th on the rankings and, with the security of a committed sponsor, building a team that was targeting a place right at the very top of the sport. That meant the team entered 2020 on a high, and even managed to end the year in tenth place, but then the pandemic and a stringent approach to managing the health risks it posed meant race limitations through the period, which had a knock-on effect on the points tally. The financial fallout also weighed on their title sponsor and therefore their budget.

A number of key riders left at the end of the 2020 season, including Michael Woods, Sep Vanmarcke and Dani Martínez. EF still delivered some impressive results in 2021, and held their win tally at 16 – just one below the 17 of the past two seasons – but ran out of steam into 2022, where the tally dropped to 9.

Just when the pandemic limitations seemed to be easing and the team seemed on a more solid budget footing, the team faced a tough battle to stay in the WorldTour when the three-year licences expired at the end of 2022. A flagging points tally in 2021 and the early stages of 2022 meant EF Education-EasyPost’s position in the top 18 teams was in jeopardy.

That meant shifting the focus from their usual focus on winning at big races to chasing points elsewhere. This included as attending smaller, but points-heavy, one-day races and trying to put multiple riders in the top 10 rather than going all-out for victory. It was a shift in strategy that was enough to keep the team in the WorldTour, but it came at a cost.

“It's been a hard season for everyone, stressful and everyone's performed in a way to sort of get us over the line and keep everything going,” said Carthy. “So I think now we can write this chapter off and really move forward.”

The team finished the three-year period safely in 14th place, and they also have added significant firepower to the roster. The biggest signing is Richard Carapaz, who has signed on with EF Education-EasyPost for three years.

“The team's in a good position now going into the next three years,” said Carthy. “I think we can race to different circumstances next year.”

Different circumstances which could see the team and Carthy resume that interrupted upwards trajectory.