{"id":853704,"date":"2026-08-13T11:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853704\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:20:12","slug":"ef-injuries-limit-carapazs-vuelta-a-espana-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853704\/","title":{"rendered":"EF injuries limit Carapaz’s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a ambitions"},"content":{"rendered":"

It looks like we\u2019ll see three of the 2026 Tour de France jersey winners in action at the 2026 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a>. Yellow Jersey winner Tadej Poga\u010dar and Green Jersey winner Mads Pedersen<\/a> have already confirmed their participation, but Polka Dot Jersey winner Richard Carapaz<\/a> also appears to be gearing up to compete. The Ecuadorian had to sit out the Giro d\u2019Italia earlier this year.Carapaz\u2019s participation isn\u2019t official yet, he told Primicias<\/a>. \u201cThey haven\u2019t confirmed it yet. We wanted to go for the general classification, but we don\u2019t have a strong team because of the many injuries; a lot of teammates are recovering,\u201d said the EF Education-EasyPost<\/a> team leader.<\/p>\n

“Three teammates had to undergo knee surgery, and two others were injured\u2014one during practice and another who was hit by a car,” he says, referring to Harry Sweeny, Lukas Nerurkar, and Archie Ryan, among others, who are currently sidelined. \u201cThose are significant losses. It\u2019s very difficult to fill such a gap, especially with our small roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

“We’ll be meeting soon to decide what my role will be in the Vuelta: going for the general classification, or\u2014just like in the Tour\u2014aiming for stage wins or the mountains classification. “If I don\u2019t go to the Vuelta, I\u2019ll still have classics and stage races in September,” said Carapaz, who will also compete in the World Championships in Montreal.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"richard-carapaz\"\/<\/p>\n

Richard Carapaz in the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Carapaz on Poga\u010dar’s compliments during the Tour de France<\/p>\n

The climber is still basking in the afterglow of his Tour de France. \u201cFor me, it was a dream Tour, because winning the polka-dot jersey and then winning a stage while wearing that same jersey is very special. That jersey represents a lot of who I am: a climber, a very competitive rider who has to fight for points every day. I think it really shows who I am.”<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar also complimented him on that several times. \u201cEvery day I spoke with him, he\u2019d say to me, \u2018You\u2019re back again; you gave it another shot.\u2019 I\u2019ve earned the respect of many riders because of my unique qualities. They know what I\u2019m capable of and what my intentions were in the Tour. I think that was crucial from the start; setting out with a goal in mind and actually achieving it\u2014that\u2019s what\u2019s most special.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It looks like we\u2019ll see three of the 2026 Tour de France jersey winners in action at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,111365,63569,85,6494,346968,39562],"class_list":["post-853704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-ef-education-easypost","tag-richard-carapaz","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-vuelta-a-espana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}