Before the Vuelta a España began, he said he wanted a top finish overall, and two weeks in, that hasn't changed: EF Education-EasyPost have confirmed that Richard Carapaz remains in the battle for the overall in what remains of the race.
As stage 14's mountainous race to Sierra de Pandera gets underway, Carapaz is currently in fourth place, 3:53 back, and with a 36-second advantage over his closest pursuer, Oscar Onley (Netcompany Ineos).
The defending champion from the last time the Vuelta visited what is known as the 'Angliru of the South’, due to it’s asphyxiatingly narrow, ultra-steep upper slopes, Carapaz was the only GC challenger to launch a long-distance attack on the previous high-mountain stage, to Calar Alto.
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The Ecuadorian climber's typically non-conformist move, some 40 kilometres from the finish, failed to gain enough traction for him to go clear. But given it was from so far out, it also sparked questions as to his top priority in a race where he has finished both on the final podium back in 2020 as well as taking multiple stages and the KoM jersey in 2022.
"We're here for a good overall placing and you can see that from the way he's been racing, he hasn't moved at all until making that attack," EF Education-EasyPost sports director Juanma Garate told Cyclingnews.
"He went for it on the Velefique" - the second last climb of the Calar Alto stage - "but then Ivan Romeo did an amazing job working for Movistar and [race leader] Enric Mas.
"We thought maybe that Carapaz' attack could cause Ivan to crack and Mas would be isolated and nobody would work in the bunch, particularly as Decathlon" - by common consent the strongest mountains team in the Vuelta this year - "were more likely to go for it in Calar Alto.
"So we tried to shake the tree a bit to keep moving up overall and that's our main idea."
In the stages that come up, it is harder to say if Carapaz will continue to try to go from distance, Garate said, pointing to the lack of suitable terrain until stage 20. The distance between major climbs is too great, Garate argues, and then the climbs themselves at Calar Alto, steep at the bottom then easing out for many kilometres before the summit, did not help getting in breaks either.
Apart from victory on Sierra de la Pandera, Carapaz also has a good history on the two big mountain stages yet to come. Stage 19 to Peñas Blancas was where he won in 2022, too, whilst in Sierra Nevada in 2024, which also featured the dauntingly difficult Puerto de El Purche, Carapaz launched a long-distance move and picked up two minutes advantage overall. He finally finished fourth, a placing which reconfirmed - he said at the time - his renewed aptitude for Grand Tour GC racing.
This time round, Carapaz came into the Vuelta fresh from taking two Alpine stage wins of a possible three at the Tour as well as the mountains title - for a second time. In the Vuelta, therefore, he's under no pressure to produce results, barring the pressure he puts on himself.
"So we're going to keep going for the general classification. Obviously if there's a stage win, we're not going to turn it down, but that's the idea. But the great thing in general is that he's always up for trying. He's really brave."
Although Carapaz' attacks often look like spontaneous affairs, the move on Velefique had been planned beforehand, Garate said. "We'd talked about it a lot, in the preceding days and in the team car as well. Movistar hadn't looked so strong - although judging by what they did in the Calar Alto stage, they've turned things around a lot - and having the leader's jersey in their ranks is giving them a lot of extra motivation.
"On other occasions he just goes for it because I can't see what he's doing from the team car. But that move was planned."
In keeping with his star rider's trademark refusal to accept the status quo, in terms of the GC, Garate himself is not putting any kind of upper limit on Carapaz's ambitions and not just because of the rider himself.
"We're hitting 40 degrees in these stages, the peloton is suffering a heck of a lot as a result, I heard there was even a rider in the bunch who blacked out [on stage 12]. It's recommended to the general public the don't go out in this kind of weather, when it's so hot, and we're out there riding our bikes."
"It's a really unpredictable situation. Enric Mas is very strong and looks solid, his team is working really well. But the Vuelta's always been a race where you can't rule out anything at all.
"Right now, Enric's the favourite, but [Primoz] Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) can overtake him in the time trial. People forget that we've got two flat stages in western Andalucia coming up where the wind can play a really important factor, too. Basically, anything could still happen."
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