Charly Wegelius, head directeur sportif at EF Education-EasyPost, was as surprised as anyone when Richard Carapaz rode his way into the yellow jersey on a crash-heavy final on stage 3 at the Tour de France.
The Ecuadorian earned the coveted race lead on countback stage placings after he finished considerably better, 24 spots or better, than his nearest rivals in the GC standings: Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), who all started the stage equal on time in the GC standings.
"We did the math last night. We looked at the results. So, we made a plan on how to get as many riders between those close rivals of Richie's because the countback, if they are on equal time, is based on stage placings," Wegelius told NBC Sports.
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"We knew it was risky; first big sprint of the Tour. We knew that it was a bit of a lottery because a lot of that was out of our hands, but we went for it and everyone in the team did a great job ... all of them. They did so well, and luckily it came off."
EF Education-EasyPost committed to keeping Carapaz in a good position and safely toward the front of the field on the run-in to Turin, which paid off in the final chaotic kilometres. Carapaz, and about 60 riders, managed to avoid a crash with 2.2km to go, which caused separations in the field.
He finished 14th on the day, while Pogačar finished 38th, Evenepoel in 40th place, and Vingegaard finished 68th, giving Carapaz the yellow jersey. Anyone caught up in or behind the crash was given the same time as the stage winner, Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty).
"It was scary, but we had a plan, and we had to make it work. At first, I was thinking about sitting up and losing time so that I could go in the breakaway in the next few days," said Carapaz's teammate Neilson Powless in a post-race interview.
"In the end, we had a bigger goal in mind, so I went back up front to clean Richie's wheel and push some wind for him if he needed it. We still had four guys around him with three Ks to go, so it was a perfect situation for us."
Carapaz, the reigning Olympic road champion and former Giro d'Italia winner, came into the Tour de France with a question mark over his form. He recently recovered from injuries sustained in a crash that forced him to abandon the Tour de Suisse and then took more time off the bike due to illness in the days leading up to the race.
"The condition that Richie is showing is quite a surprise. He basically had 10 days off his bike in the run-up to the Tour, which isn't really ideal," Wegelius said. "He surprised us on the first stage, shocked us in the second, and now he's in yellow. That's cycling, I guess."
Carapaz, Pogačar, Evenepoel and Vingegaard remain at the same time on GC after stage 3, with Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) at 21 seconds as the race heads into stage 4 from Pinerolo to Valloire. The 139km stage will include climbs over Sestriere and Galibier.
"We'll keep our feet on the ground," Wegelius said. "Bologne is one thing; the Alps is another. We are going to enjoy tonight and take tomorrow as it comes."
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