Richard Carapaz bathed in gold at Tokyo 2020

(CNN Spanish) – Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz won the gold medal in road cycling at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Carapaz wrote the Olympic history of Ecuador by being the second gold medal in the country’s history.
The “Locomotora de Carchi” prevailed after a getaway six kilometers from the end and ending with an advantage of one minute and seven seconds over their closest pursuers.
The Belgian Wout van Aert took the silver medal and the flaming winner of the Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar, won the bronze in a sprint where the Colombian Rigoberto Urán was involved.(Photo by Greg Baker / AFP) (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP via Getty Images)

Carapaz won one of the most important medals of the 11 in dispute this Saturday in Tokyo and his name will remain in the history of Olympism, being the second Ecuadorian to win the highest honor in an Olympic jousting.

The first to do so was the marcher Jefferson Pérez in Atlanta 1996, Pérez won the silver medal in the same competition 12 years later in Beijing 2008. Pérez and Carapaz are the only Olympic medalists in the history of Ecuador.

(Photo ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP via Getty Images)

Carapaz is one of the most important riders of the moment. In 2019 he won the Giro d’Italia, the following year he ranked second in the Vuelta a España.
In this 2021 he won the Tour of Switzerland, added to this year’s podium in France when he took third place.