Ben Healy and Richard Carapaz have enjoyed stints in yellow during the last two years and lead EF Education-EasyPost into the 2026 edition (Photo: Nico Vereecken-Cor Vos)
Ben Healy held the yellow jersey at the Tour de France last year while his team mate, Richard Carapaz led the race the year before; winning stages in both editions.
And now the Ecuadorian-Irish partnership has been named to lead EF Education-EasyPost into the 2026 Tour de France, which gets underway in Barcelona this Saturday.
Carapaz, a Giro winner and 3rd overall in the Tour in 2021, is capable of a podium finish again, certainly a top five overall. But he and Healy make for a very aggressive duo that will be more intent on taking a stage win and then worrying about the general classification.
Both riders have perhaps more motivation than usual, having suffered bad luck this season. Healy sustained a fracture in a crash at Itzulia Basque Country (2.UWT) in April and then missed two months of racing.
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The Irishman, who won stage 6 on the Tour de France last year, returned to competition at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (2.UWT) earlier this month, but then fell ill and abandoned after stage 6.
For his part, Carapaz was set to lead the team into the Giro d'Italia in May but was ruled out of that race before it even started after being forced to undergo surgery to remove a perineal cyst.
That followed on from his being forced out of last year's Tour after developing a gastrointestinal infection while training at home in Ecuador, following his 3rd place finish at Giro 2025.
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Richard Carapaz on the attack in the climbers' jersey at the 2024 Tour de France. He now returns after missing last year's edition (Photo: Billy Ceusters)
However, both have now pressed the re-set button and they will appear alongside each other at a Grand Tour for the first time in two years.
Healy has really broken through to the top tier - thanks to last year's Tour and his bronze at the Worlds - since they last appeared in the same Tour team in 2024, Back then, Carapaz claimed a stage, wore the yellow jersey and won the climbers' classification.
They are part of an especially strong line-up, which also includes French rider Alex Baudin, who won stage 1 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and held yellow until the final stage.
Max Walker and Georg Steinhauser will make their Tour debuts for EF Education-EasyPost. Steinhauser has already won a Giro stage and earlier this year finished 3rd overall at Paris-Nice, and best young rider.
The Danish duo of classics winner Kasper Asgreen and Michael Valgren, who won a stage at the Giro in May, are also in the team, as is former US champion Sean Quinn, just back from a knee injury.
Carapaz, the elder statesman of the team, and former Olympic road race champion, said the team had undertaken a successful altitude camp, with high morale and real motivation to get stuck in.
"We have a versatile team and that ultimately helps a lot with the team's ambitions. The general classification will depend heavily on how the race circumstances unfold," he said.
"I want to go after stage wins and could try to repeat winning the mountains jersey. That would be beautiful for me, and it's what I desire most for this Tour."
