It may not have been the best of seasons in 2022 for Hugh Carthy, or for his EF Education-EasyPost team for that matter, but it could hardly be called disastrous when even between repeated runs ins with illness and the threat of relegation hanging over the squad he still delivered ninth at the Giro d’Italia and then, in his last race of the season, took second on GC at the Tour de Langkawi.
“I think this race is a nice way to wrap up the season,” said Carthy on the sidelines of the hot and humid Tour de Langkawi, the day after vaulting into second spot on GC with a powerful performance on the steep pitches of the Genting Highlands climb.
“It’s not been a great season, I’ve had some good results in the Giro, a top ten and it’s a quite strong performance there. It still wasn’t what I was after this year, which has been up and down with illness and stuff. So yeah, it’s not been a perfect year but I think you sometimes have these years in your career where things don’t go too well.”
In 2019 Carthy delivered his first WorldTour stage win at the Tour de Suisse and also marked out his Grand Tour GC potential with 11th at the Giro. A year later, he stepped onto the overall podium of a Grand Tour for the first time with third at the Vuelta a España, where he also won a stage. Then in 2021, it was an eighth place at the Giro d’Italia, a stage win at Vuelta a Burgos but a difficult Vuelta a España, where he abandoned on stage 7. He proceeded to have a challenging last part of the season to lead into 2022, where various illnesses hit, including COVID-19 .
“I think I’d have want wanted more if I’d been saying in January what I wanted out of the season, but if someone also had said you are going to have a bad year but you’re still going to finish top ten in a Grand Tour then I probably would have signed up for that in January as well,” Carthy told Cyclingnews in the Malaysian town of Sabak Bernam, as the race worked its way up Peninsular Malaysia to the island of Langkawi. “To be philosophical about it, it could have been a lot worse, but it could have been better and there is still stuff to take away from it.”
The strong climbing performance that delivered Carthy a podium spot at the Tour de Langkawi may have been positive note on which to finish the season, but his optimism for the years ahead is based on more than individual results.
“It’s been a bit of a transitional period for the team since the pandemic, with riders leaving, riders…
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