Wind the clock back three years ago, and Hugh Carthy was a recent Grand Tour podium finisher, and a winner on cycling’s hardest mountain.
Now, in his own words, he is more of an inconsistent GC rider who one week is promising and the next week off the pace.
There is an admission that, although he counts nine stage race top-10s since he rode to third at the 2020 Vuelta a España and memorably triumphed up the Angliru, the Englishman hasn’t really built on that result, and according to the team around him there are reasons for that.
“Hugh went from being a domestique climber with potential to win stages – we knew he was strong, but he was always one of the helpers – to someone who then had a breakthrough Vuelta result and become one of the leaders,” explains EF Education-EasyPost sports director Tejay Van Garderen who also rode with the Briton for three seasons.
“There have been a couple of road blocks like sometimes falling ill at the wrong time and also dealing psychologically with the pressure of being a leader.
“I think he’s more comfortable now with stepping into the leadership role that he wasn’t quite used to in the couple of years after the Vuelta podium. Now though he seems to be back to the same old Hugh who likes to crack jokes and play games.
“It was more the expectation he put on himself, like wanting to do it again, and I still believe he is capable of another result like he got in the 2020 Vuelta.”
For his part, Carthy tells Cycling Weekly that he hasn’t “really changed much” in the last few years. “Every now and again I have some good results,” he says, “but I want some more consistency. I’m getting better, knowing more about myself, my training, what works. It’s all on track.
“The sport has changed, but not drastically, and there are still experienced riders doing alright. It’s not like your career is over at 29 by any means.”
Asked what his ceiling could be, Carthy responds that “what I did in the Vuelta a few years ago is up there. If I can do that, or be close to that again, then I’ll be happy, satisfied. But it’s a tough world, it’s competitive from top to bottom, so you have to be grateful for whatever you can get.”
For the fourth consecutive season, Carthy is planning to race both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta. While the presence of Tadej Pogačar at the former and Jonas Vingegaard at the latter will result in those two being the overwhelming favourites, the pool of riders behind them, including Carthy, will all be focused on landing a place in the top-three.
“When you look at that stage of the Angliru in the Vuelta, he dropped some of the best climbers in the world straight off his wheel, and he’s done that on other occasions,” Van Garderen reflects.
“Pure numbers, pure physicality-wise, he’s right there with the best. I think if he gets the positioning down, works on some more of his weaknesses like the changes of rhythm and speed work that some other guys might be a bit better at, and he also manages to stay healthy, you drop him at the base of a climb where everything is level between all the best guys, and Hugh’s still going to be one of the best in the world.
“It will take a lot of things to go right for him, but when it does he is every bit as capable of another podium in a Grand Tour for sure.”