The year of Jhonatan Narváez: from the controversy at the Olympic Games to sharing a team with Pogacar

The Ecuadorian cyclist Jhonatan Narváez had a lot of activity in 2024 and with aspects to highlight, in addition to others that They left him in the middle of the controversy. His professional growth has been constant and next season he will be on one of the best teams on the tour.

The Lizard closed its last season as a runner INEOS Grenadiersa team in which he has raced since 2019 and He also shared two years with Richard Carapaz. From 2025 it will be part of the UAE Team Emirateswhich has the best cyclist in the world, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.

His arrival to the United Arab Emirates team due to its great performancewhich allowed him to be considered one of the best classicists today. He stood out above all in the one-day tests, but in the grand tours he was always a first-class teammate.

In the year he won the first stage of the Giro d’Italia, so He wore the leader’s shirt for a day. He was crowned champion of Ecuador, over Carapaz, and won the Down Under classic. He also received the award for combativity in stage 14 of the Vuelta a España.

With all this background, he was selected as the representative of Ecuador in the Paris Olympic Games, because contrary to the previous edition, in which the country had two places, for the last edition it only had one.

The bidding was between Carapaz and Narváez. The first, Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020, assured that he deserved to attend and defend that medal, while his partner appeared capable of doing a good job.

The election of the Ecuadorian Cycling Federation was controversial, as it weighed what was done during the year and not what happened in the Olympic cycle.. Finally Narváez was chosen and Carapaz supported his election, beyond the friction with the federation.

The rider He couldn’t do much running alone in Paris. Even a mechanical failure kept him from stellar positions, in a test that Remco Evenepoel dominated. Thus, the Ecuadorian finished in 45th place.

The Lizard He had ups and downs in the seasonbut his professionalism and growth are not in doubt. Now he has joined one of the star teams on the world tour and with which he will surely continue as the protagonist.