Team Movistar's Richard Carapaz has made history at the Giro d'Italia on Sunday, he held on to most of his advantage in the general classification during the final individual time trial stage and became the first Ecuadorian to win a Grand Tour. The 26-year-old had an advantage of almost two minutes on second-placed Vincenzo Nibali going into Sunday's 17km time trial in Verona and he ended up losing less than a minute to the experienced Italian. Slovenia's Primoz Roglic finished third overall. Carapaz is the second South American to win the Giro after Colombian Nairo Quintana in 2014.
"This is the biggest moment of my sporting life and it's hard to explain it," Carapaz said after the race. "I just suffered from start to finish until I reached the arena in Verona." The Ecuadorian has won this race in the mountains, especially on stage 14 when he really emerged as a general classification contender. In fact, when this year's Giro started Carapaz was not even the leader of his team, he was supposed to ride in support of team-mate Mikel Landa. But on stage 14 Carapaz proved to be better than all the rest. He arrived first at the finish line in Courmayeur and from that moment on he was always in control of the race.
Last year Carapaz finished fourth overall and also made history on stage 8, when he became the first Ecuadorian to win a stage at a Grand Tour. He joined Movistar in 2016 and his first experience at a Grand Tour was at the 2017 Vuelta a Espana, where he finished 36th overall. He was not supposed to ride the Tour de France this season as Team Movistar are expected to rely on Nairo Quintana at the French race. Second-placed Vincenzo Nibali has announced that he will take part in the Tour de France and even try to win it.
Chris Froome is the top favourite to win the Tour de France this year after having skipped the Giro, he is 6/5 to win it at Bet365, while last year's winner Geraint Thomas is 3/1 to repeat the achievement. Richard Carapaz is 33/1 to win the Tour de France this season.
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