After their GC contender 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Hugh Carthy quit the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Vuelta a España on Friday, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:EF Education-Nippo riders and managemenꦅt have confirmed the team will now switch 100 per cent into sꦬtage-hunting mode for the rest of the race.
Third in the 2020 Vuelta, Carthy seemed set to shine after winnin🌠g the final mountain stage of Spain’s key warm-up race for the Vuelta a España, the Vuelta a Burgos. But instead the British climber lost ground throughout the first week and ended up abandoning.
Riders and management from the team argued on Saturday morning that with their Plan A no longer an option, the team's focus will be on repeating 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Magnus Cort’s stage victory on Thursday.
“We came here to help Hugh for GC but obviously he’s gone home now,” the team’s young British climber Simon Carr told Cyclngnews. “So we’ll keep looking forꦦ stages. Winning that one with Magnus was real♊ly good, and hopefully we can continue like that.”
Carr has already ꦚlooked over his possible options for stage wins with the team's sports directors, &l🌸dquo;basically the ones where the break is more likely to go, with some hard climbs but not necessarily summit finishes. Probably about half the stages that are left look good for that, so there’s going to be quite a few options.
“But I&rsq𝔉uo;d say going forward we’ll all get used to it and that shouldn’t be a factor again," Carr said. “I don’t know any of👍 the climbs in this part of the Vuelta either as I’ve never raced this far south in Spain. So we’ll just scope them out on Veloviewer and go for it day by day.”
Although Cort’s stage win had eased the pressure already on the team, Carr sa🍒id, “I think all the riders here are going to be very m🔯otivated.”
Subsequent to talking to Cyclingnews, the EF Education racer was unlucky enough to crash early on stage 8, suffering what the official Vuelta medical report described as multiple grazes and bruising. But he was a𒀰ble to complete the stage🐽, albeit finishing in last place, over five minutes down on the winner Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep).
Asked by a small group of reporters on Saturday morning about Carthy’s abandon, team director Juanma Garate said, “I think the stress of the first week cost him a lot of energy and mental energyඣ too. In the last couple of da⛄ys he was feeling empty, a little bit, and tired.”
On Thursday evening Garate had insisted to Cyclingnews that Carthy’s time losses which left him out of ༒the GC battle were not a true reflection of his form and the director thought he could move into EF’s battle for stages.
But by mid-way Friday they had concluded, Garate said, that “in thesꦍe conditions it was better not to sta൲y here. He needs a small break, to go home and recover a little.”
Garate had been optimistic following Burgos about Carthy’s chances, pointing out that♌ “when he won that last stage, he beat [Egan] Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and guys that are fighting here for GC. I think his condition was good. But cycling isn’t just abo🍷ut your legs.”
The relentless series of time losses on the opening three stages was partly to blame for Carthy’s difficult situation. “But it is like it is and we have to accept it,” Garante pointe🌠d out.
Carr confirmed🎀 that Carthy’s tough first week had made it for the Briton to⭕ continue.
“We spok꧙e to him last [Friday] night and he seems OK physically. It was just the accumulation, like Juanma said," Carr stated. “I don’t think he’ll have any trouble coming back and he’ll be coming back stronger as well.”
And in the meantime, EF Educ✨ation-Nippo ꦬhave Vuelta stages to hunt for.
