One of the most intriguing projects in professional cycling just landed its biggest fish. Richard Carapaz — a former Grand Tour winner and Olympic road race champion — has torn up his contract with EF Education-EasyPost a year early to join NSN Cycling Team, the ambitious squad co-founded by Spanish football icon Andrés Iniesta.
It is the kind of signing that turns a promising start-up team into a genuine Grand Tour threat overnight. Here is what happened, why it matters for the shape of the 2027 season, and what it means if you follow — or ride — the sport yourself.
What Happened
According to Cyclingnews, the 33-year-old Ecuadorian has signed a three-year deal with the Swiss-registered NSN Cycling Team, starting in 2027. Carapaz was under contract with EF Education-EasyPost until the end of 2027, but both parties agreed to end the partnership early after four seasons in the famously pink EF kit. EF team boss Jonathan Vaughters later framed the exit bluntly as a cost-cutting decision.
The move was unveiled in classic modern-cycling fashion: a social media video featuring NSN co-founder Andrés Iniesta, the World Cup-winning midfielder who has poured his post-football energy into building a cycling team from the ground up. Carapaz described it as “a tremendous opportunity” to become one of the squad’s leaders, adding that the project reminded him of the excitement he felt signing his very first professional contract.
For NSN, this is signing number seven for 2027. For EF, Carapaz is the sixth confirmed departure ahead of next season — a significant reshuffle for a team that built much of its recent Grand Tour identity around the Ecuadorian climber.
Why It Matters
Carapaz is not a developmental gamble or a sentimental veteran signing. He is, by the numbers, still one of the best stage racers in the world. His palmarès includes a Giro d’Italia overall title (2019), an Olympic road race gold medal, three Tour de France stage wins, and multiple Grand Tour King of the Mountains classifications. In 2026 alone he claimed two Tour de France stage wins and the polka-dot climber’s jersey, finished eighth overall at the Tour, and backed it up with fourth place at the 2026 Vuelta a España plus a podium at the Clásica San Sebastián.
The clearest sign of his value is this: Cyclingnews reports that Carapaz’s 2026 UCI points haul was more than double that of Biniam Girmay, previously NSN’s top-ranked rider. In one signing, NSN has effectively doubled its firepower at the very top of the results sheet and gained a proven leader who can target the overall standings in three-week races.
General Manager Kjell Carlström pointed to Carapaz’s grit and leadership as much as his results, noting the climber’s value in mentoring the team’s younger riders. That dual role — on-road GC leader and dressing-room mentor — is exactly what a rising team needs to accelerate its development, and it hints at NSN’s longer-term ambition to become a fixture at the sport’s biggest races.
A Team Quietly Building for the Grand Tours
Carapaz does not arrive alone. NSN’s 2027 recruitment drive has been aggressive and targeted, adding climbing talent, Classics punch, and sprint options. Alongside Carapaz, the team has confirmed the arrivals of Colombian climber Santiago Buitrago, Belgian stage-race talent Lennert Van Eetvelt, former Tour of Flanders winner Kasper Asgreen, Artem Shmidt, and Cedric Beullens.
That is a roster taking clear shape: a Grand Tour GC spearhead in Carapaz, a young climbing lieutenant in Buitrago, a rouleur-classics engine in Asgreen, and an established fast man in Girmay. It is the kind of balanced core that can realistically chase stage wins, jerseys, and even overall podiums across the three-week races. With the Giro d’Italia 2027 route already revealed — complete with the brutal return of the Zoncolan — a climber of Carapaz’s pedigree suddenly has an obvious marquee target for his first season in the new colours.
What This Means For You
If you are a fan, the headline takeaway is simple: 2027 just got more interesting. A new team with serious backing and a genuine Grand Tour leader adds a fresh storyline to a men’s peloton long dominated by a handful of super-teams. Keep an eye on how NSN builds its race programme and whether it earns the invitations needed to line up at the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta.
If you are a rider, there is a practical lesson in Carapaz’s enduring success. His superpower has always been climbing — repeatable, high-torque efforts on long gradients, sustained for weeks on end. You do not need WorldTour genetics to improve on that front. Structured hill repeats are one of the most effective ways amateur cyclists can build climbing power, raise their threshold, and ride stronger on the gradients that decide every group ride. It is a reminder that the traits that make a Grand Tour champion are, at their root, trainable.
And if you are simply new to the sport, Carapaz is a great rider to follow as a gateway into stage racing. His attacking, unpredictable style is a highlight reel in itself — and a good entry point if you are still getting to grips with cycling’s biggest names.
The Iniesta Factor
What separates this story from a routine transfer is the name behind the team. Andrés Iniesta — the midfielder whose goal won Spain the 2010 World Cup — is not a passive celebrity investor lending his face to a logo. He has positioned himself as a co-founder actively shaping the NSN project, and fronting the Carapaz announcement himself sends a clear message about the team’s seriousness and its appetite for the spotlight.
The EF Education-EasyPost Fallout
Every blockbuster arrival leaves a hole somewhere else, and Carapaz’s departure is a notable one for EF Education-EasyPost. He had been a cornerstone of the American team’s Grand Tour approach, and his willingness to attack from distance made him one of the most watchable riders in the WorldTour. Team boss Jonathan Vaughters characterised the early release as the financially sensible move — a frank acknowledgement that even established teams must now weigh star salaries against the realities of the sport’s economics.
EF has already moved to reshape its roster around the gap, signalling a shift toward a broader, more collective model rather than funnelling resources into a single marquee GC leader. How that rebuild fares against a strengthened NSN will be one of the quieter but more revealing subplots of the 2027 season — a reminder that transfer-window decisions ripple across the peloton for years, not just months.
Key Takeaways
- Richard Carapaz has left EF Education-EasyPost a year early to sign a three-year deal with Andrés Iniesta’s NSN Cycling Team from 2027.
- He brings elite credentials: a Giro d’Italia title, Olympic road race gold, and two Tour de France stage wins plus the polka-dot jersey in 2026.
- His UCI points tally in 2026 was more than double that of NSN’s previous top rider, instantly elevating the team’s Grand Tour ambitions.
- NSN has paired him with signings including Santiago Buitrago, Lennert Van Eetvelt, and Kasper Asgreen, assembling a balanced squad for the three-week races.
- For everyday cyclists, Carapaz’s climbing-first success is a nudge toward structured hill training to build your own power.
Source: Cyclingnews.
