A day after the collision between Richard Carapaz and Geoffrey Bouchard in the eleventh stage of the Vuelta, the Ecuadorian was still very upset by the actions of the French team that has the red jersey with Ben O’Connor.
For the leader of EF Education-EasyPost, Decathlon AG2R team was responsible for the crash. However, it was mainly the reaction afterwards that struck Carapaz even more.
“In the end, it was very clearly their fault,” said the Ecuadorian. “There are many ways to defend a jersey, but the way they do it I find very sad. That is a lack of respect. I can’t judge it, everyone does what they do.”
The jury was able to reach a verdict after discussions with both teams. It resulted in no fewer than four yellow cards for the French team. However, this is not the end of the matter for Carapaz.
“Nothing happened, and that is the worst. If you make a mistake, you should at least talk about it and say you are sorry. There is a lot of arrogance, because I have not heard anything from them.”
Carapaz lost 15 seconds on his closest rivals Primoz Roglic and Enric Mas on Wednesday but escaped unscathed.
“Physically, there is nothing, but respect is lost in the peloton. That is a trend that cannot continue.”
“There’s absolutely no need for that.” 😯🗣️
Things got chippy in the peloton after Richard Carapaz crashed early on in Stage 11 of @lavuelta 🚲#LaVuelta24 #couchpeloton pic.twitter.com/8qzR1RmQY5
— SBS Sport (@SBSSportau) August 29, 2024
