Hugh Carthy: ‘There’s more to be made up and less to be lost at Giro d’Italia’
EF Education-EasyPost climber is hoping to make up ground in the GC after losing time in the opening week.
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GENOVA, Italy (VN) — Hugh Carthy has everything to gain and little to lose as the Giro d’Italia nears its key final week.
The EF Education-EasyPost rider was sent tumbling down the overall standings at the end of the opening week after losing nearly four minutes to his GC rivals on the summit finish to Blockhaus. Until then, Carthy’s only major time loss was the 38 seconds he gave away to Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) in the stage 2 time trial.
Carthy now sits 4:22 back on the race leader Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) after Thursday’s stage 12.
With six more big mountain stages and a time trial to come, there’s plenty of road for riders to move up and down the overall standings and Carthy hopes he’s seen the last of his off-days.
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“I feel good. I think it’s gone OK so far, there’s still a lot to play for so I’m very happy,” Carthy told VeloNews. “There’s more to be made up and less to be lost. I think some people will have some bad days, and hopefully, I’ve had mine out of the way. I’m still feeling good, so we’ll see how this week goes. I’ll stay calm and see how things are.”
Carthy has been fairly lively when the opportunity has arisen during the second week of the Giro d’Italia. He went on the attack during Tuesday’s hilly stage into Jesi, where a big push from Alpecin-Fenix and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert on the undulating finale saw the peloton split and a small group of just under 30 riders went to the line.
Rather than making up time on his rivals further up the GC standings, Carthy was hoping to make the most of the frenetic finale to take a stage victory.
It didn’t work out, but it is a sign that he is still feeling good, despite losing a big chunk in the overall classification last week
“It was just to see if the stage win was there, I think I was in a position that I hadn’t expected to be in. We expected it to be a breakaway, we didn’t expect it to be a GC day, but in the end, it was a select group,” Carthy explained.
“When it’s like that and it’s ones and twos from teams a rider like me can sneak off and win the stage. It was more for the stage win, it wasn’t to win time back or do anything like that. Magnus Cort was the plan A on that stage, but it didn’t work out for him, so I tried my luck.”
Carthy had gone into the Giro d’Italia with the hope of making the top five or even pushing for the podium. He now sits down in 15th place at 4:22 behind the current race leader Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo).
He still harbors hope of gaining enough ground to at least make it into the top 10 and this weekend’s mountainous double header will give him an idea of where he stands.
“It’s a goal but it’s a little more complicated after losing four minutes. We’ll have to see how this week plays out and going into the last week and then see what options we have then,” Carthy said.