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This Saturday, Richard Carapaz will lead EF Education-EasyPost at the Giro di Lombardia.

Alongside Esteban Chaves, Ben Healy, Mikkel Honoré, Andrea Piccolo, Jonathan Caicedo, and Rigoberto Urán, our Olympic and Ecuadorian champion wants to light up the last great classic of the year.

After a difficult season beset by illness and injury, he is back in attacking form. On Tuesday, Richie finished second at Tre Valli Varesine with a tremendous sprint away from the group of favorites in the final kilometer. To be able to do that after all he’s been through shows just how tough Richie is. We spoke to him about his comeback for the Race of Falling Leaves.

How do you feel going into Il Lombardia?

It has been a difficult season for me. It has not been my year. It was a very strange one. Since the beginning of the season, there was always something off, but now I’m finally ‘seeing sunlight again.’ Recently, I’ve been feeling very good. I’m close to my best.

These days in Italy, I’ve been in great shape and that is something that strengthens me and my head. I want to be in the game at Lombardia. We have a team that knows what I want, and I’ve shared my confidence with them that I feel fresh, with good legs, and it’s something they have seen in the last weeks. Lombardia is Lombardia, and we’re here to go all or nothing.

Only one rider will lift his hands in the air, but I know that I can be the one. That’s my personal objective.

How difficult was your comeback?

It was very hard. When I left the TDF, I didn’t yet know that I would have to write the story again on a blank page. I wasn’t sure about anything. I flew back to my home country, Ecuador, but it turned out very different to what I had hoped. I started my comeback, but as hard as I fought, I felt that it wasn’t getting any better. I couldn’t see light at the end of the tunnel.

And all this went into my head. I started to think about things I should not, but then these last five weeks my body started to feel better. I could breathe more easily and I could slowly see some results. Back on the bike, I was feeling better. That was the biggest problem I had. One hour on the bike was okay, but the pain started to kick in then, so two- and three-hour rides were impossible to think about. It was also in my head; was it because I was working too hard? Was I not doing enough work? These were questions that haunted me during my whole recovery.

Now in Italy, being able to fight for a win with the big guys in my first races back is something enormous for me. This comeback, besides the hard work and the suffering, has been a positive for me, because I now am where I have to be. There were many uncertain days on my way to recovery. The workload was very intense. I wasn’t even in my hometown Carchi in Ecuador. I had to live in Quito for practical reasons, because my physiotherapist, my kinesiologist, were all closer there, so all that time I wasn’t at home with my family. I was living in a different city, working as hard as I could every day to come back.

From where do you get your motivation?

In the end, I have to say that I love my bike. I love cycling. It’s my passion. It’s something that motivates me every day.

I trained for five months as hard as I could to be fit for the Tour. The road ahead was clear, and then, in a blink of an eye, everything went dark. So that is something that was obviously in my head with me. I was angry, frustrated, when I thought to myself, shoot, I need to come back. That was my motivation, to get out that anger that I had in me since my crash in Bilbao.

Now being able to feel that I am in shape again is something that is maybe not a relief, but it definitely consoles me. I’ve worked hard for it. Being able to be here again with the best is not an easy task, even more so nowadays when in every race you look at the numbers afterwards and think, heck, these numbers are not normal. But yeah, going day by day and feeling good is something that I like. I’m motivated every day. I wake up, knowing I’ve done something positive and I want to continue with that focus. In the end, that’s the Richie we all know: competitive and always active in the fight.

We have a very strong team for Il Lombardia. What is it like to lead your teammates into such an important race?

We will have to manage the race well. We have Rigo and Chaves, who already knows what it takes to win a monument like Il Lombardia. We will have to manage the race based on everyone’s feelings. We don’t all want to play the same card. You have to demonstrate beforehand what your capabilities are. We will have a leader, and I think that I can take over this responsibility. I want to be the one who goes to the meeting and says, ‘this day is going to be for me, and I want you guys to trust me.’

I’ve already shown what I’m able to do, that I am well prepared, and that I’m going to be the one who is going to be ready to stand in the line of fire. And I know that I will be surrounded by the best teammates, who will lead me towards the climax of the race. There will be many moments in the race when you will need to be perfectly placed, and then it will be just a pure elimination race. The competition level is so high nowadays that if you are ever in a bad position early in the race, all that extra effort will be something that will cost you in the end.

So far, I’ve not yet been the one saying, ‘Guys, I want to win,’ but I have been showing my teammates that they can put all their trust in me. I’ve been getting better day by day. I’m coming from a very difficult situation. I had to quit racing for over seven weeks, so being able to stand here now is something that my teammates know is not an easy task. Lombardia is a race made for my characteristics. We will be up against many very very strong opponents, but I know that I will be in the fight. It will be a special race. You grow up watching the Giro, Tirreno, Il Lombardia, and you dream, as a kid, of standing on the podium. The Italian fans are wonderful.