The Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz shows a favorable evolution of his left knee injury that left him out of the Tour de France and the World Championship in Glasgow, but declared that his goal now is the Tour of Spain.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion works on a roller and, four weeks before the start of the Tour of Spain, his goal is to be on the starting line on August 26 in Barcelona. With focused work, Carapaz managed to return to the bicycle, although his movements at the moment are exclusively on the roller.
“We have worked a lot on stimuli to remove pain. There is no discomfort anymore, I can do the full flexion and I started pedaling, ”Carapaz told the Primicias portal, where he specified that his work on a bicycle these first days does not exceed 30 minutes.
Returning to training, Carapaz shows optimism for what will be his return to competition. “We have the possibility of going to the Vuelta a España. I still have four weeks and that is a goal. It helps me morally to want to continue my recovery to get to the Vuelta. It is a great motivation. For my part, I will try to arrive as best as possible and then the team will decide if I go or not and if an alternative calendar is considered, ”he said.
The downtime caused loss of muscle mass in the left leg. “But you have to work on strengthening and, above all, try to recover to return well and avoid future problems,” said the man from Carch.
Carapaz assured: “There is no longer serious pain. I have swelling, but that’s normal. I can be on the bike and resume my training ”, he pointed out.
The Olympic champion commented that “the best thing” was to return to the country for his recovery; and, although the “deadlines have been extended”, everything is within schedule given a “condition” from the EF Education-EasyPost team to have it fully completed before its return to competitions.
“The focus with the doctors and technicians was to recover 100%, because less than that is useless for the team. Going to 80% and having a new injury in a few months is not good for anyone”, he indicated.
That is why the deadlines were extended, as revealed by the tricolor, “because after ten days he could have been on a bicycle, but what was sought was to be well to, from that, plan what is coming.”
Source: primicias.ec y eluniverso.com