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amey
Oliver Schick
Sacrilege indeed! It's liked comparing apples and pears - they're both great and have both taken slightly unconventional approaches to get where they are now but just about everything about them is different, from riding style to the teams they've chosen and where they're from. I think they're quite friendly btw.
I've been following Carthy since 2013 because as a little project I decided to pick a bunch of Rapha Condor riders (Carthy, Mike Cuming, Elliot Porter and Felix English) and follow their progress through social media/the media/procyclingstats etc. in a slightly stalky way.
It's been a pretty up and down journey and has really brought home how most don't make it, which is what I thought would happen.
Carthy is the only one properly racing at the moment - Porter stopped in 2017, Cuming doesn't seem to have a ride for this year and English is focused on the Olympics for Ireland but also riding for Tekkerz although I'm not sure in what capacity.
It's really worth reading up on when Carthy moved to Caja Rural (which was definitely an unconventional choice). He spoke no Spanish and instead of taking the easier option of moving to Girona (lots of English-speaking pros to hang out with/go riding with) he moved to Pamplona (where nobody really speaks English) and just immersed himself and got a Colombian as a flatmate to help him with his Spanish:
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/hugh-carthy-an-underdog-free-from-distractions/
Him and Tao are pretty much my two favourite British riders so if he did manage to get that 32 seconds back (I think it's possible) it would be a mad year...