Richard Carapaz's greatest sporting successes from the team EF Education EasyPost are the overall victory at the Giro d'Italia 2019 and the Olympic gold medal in the road race in Tokyo 2021. However, he will not be able to defend his title in Paris this year, as Carapaz was not nominated by his federation. Jhonatan Narvaez from the Ineos Grenadiers team was allocated the only starting place for Ecuador in the Olympic road race.
Cannondale SuperSix Evo: livery reminiscent of Olympic victory
Carapaz's Olympic victory is also commemorated by the paintwork on his racer, which features a black and gold marble pattern. The SuperSix Evo from equipment supplier Cannondale is the American manufacturer's lightweight model and is tailored to mountain bikers like Carapaz. However, the engineers also had good aerodynamics in mind during development, and the model should also perform well on flat terrain.
The balancing act was a success, as the model was particularly aerodynamically impressive in the TOUR test. With 207 watts, it is in close proximity to pure aero specialists such as the Scott Foil or Merida Reacto. The EF Education EasyPost team seems to be aware of the model's strengths and now relies exclusively on it. The team no longer had a SystemSix, the heavier aero bike in Cannondale's programme, with them on this tour, even for the flat stages.
Lab71 frame
Like the whole team, Carapaz rides a frame with the "Lab71" label on the seat tube, which is an award for the highest carbon quality. The frame should therefore be quite light, even the basic version we tested weighed well under 1000 grams. According to Cannondale, a Lab71 frame should only weigh 770 grams.
With its claim, the bike could definitely offer a competitive advantage similar to the Tarmac SL8 from Specialized, because it performs well on all terrains. However, the check in the paddock with our scales was surprising. Even if the bike was equipped for a flat stage with 60 millimetre Vision wheels, 7.6 kilograms is comparatively high.
Richard Carapaz relies on Speedplay pedals
Like all his team-mates, Carapaz rides an FSA crank with an integrated power meter from the German manufacturer Power2Max for sponsorship reasons. Another speciality: EF Education is the only team with Speedplay pedals, Carapaz uses the aero version. The wheels come from Vision, where the Ecuadorian has the choice between 60, 50 and 37 millimetre high rims - the lightest version should reduce the weight of the bike by around 150 grams.
TOUR at the Tour de France: Exclusive blog
Jens Klötzer
Editor
