Richard Carapaz added to his Grand Tour tally on Saturday, winning a dramatic stage 20 of the Tour de France into Alpe d'Huez.

The EF Education-EasyPost rider had once again been part of the day's breakaway which was down to just three riders as they reached the bottom of the day's final climb, the Col de Sarenne, with 27km to go.

Having been distanced by Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) close to the top of the climb, the American crashed on the road into the finish Alpe d'Huez, Carapaz able to take advantage and his second stage in three days. Having won maximum points on three of the four classified climbs, Carapaz also sealed the mountains classification.

Largely uninjured, Kuss held on gamely but was unable to hold off Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) was third, just 26 seconds behind Carapaz. Kuss was third, a further five seconds down.

Evenepoel had been in a group with the UAE Team Emirates-XRG pair of Tadej Pogačar and Isaac Del Toro, neither of whom reacted when the Belgian attacked, at two kilometres to go.

Finishing in fourth place on the day, Pogačar all but cemented his fifth Tour de France overall victory on Saturday. The yellow jersey had worked for his team mate, Isaac Del Toro for most of the day and now needs only to finish Sunday's shortened stage in Paris to seal the record win.

In a fantastic stage which waxed and waned all day, the race changed complexion both on the stage and the general classification. While the GC podium places remained the same, the time gaps did move, and Isaac Del Toro cemented his place in the best young rider's jersey, just has his team leader did in yellow.

As with the general classification, the points and mountains classifications are also all but decided. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) won the day's intermediate sprint, while Richard Carapaz won three of the day's classified climbs, both men taking unassailable leads in their respective classifications, provided they finish in Paris on Sunday.

How it happened

The last of three stages in the Alps, stage 20 was the race's queen stage, the 170.9km stage between Le Bourg d'Oisans and Alpe d'Huez leading the riders climb a brutal 5,400m over four classified climbs. Of those climbs the day's second, the first category Col du Télégraphe, was the "easiest", the remaining three ascents classed as hors categorie - beyond category.

The final one of those was the Col de Sarenne, being used for the first time as a climb, evened out 14km from the line, before emerging onto the traditional Alpe d'Huez ascent just inside the final 4km, with five hairpins remaining.

The race was on an unclassified climb within the opening 10km, a group of six already a minute up the road. However, as the gradients of the 24km Col de la Croix de Fer began to bite the soup fell apart and they were soon caught by the Visma-Lease a bike led bunch.

Four riders from that team were soon part of a 15-man group to get away, with Carapaz, his chief rival for the mountains classification, Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) and Juan Ayuso among them, the Lidl-Trek rider having lost more than six minutes on Friday, falling to seventh overall.

Three kilometres from the top of the climb Carapaz attacked, leaving Paret-Peintre trailing in his wake, taking maximum mountains points, with the UAE led peloton more than two minutes back.

Perhaps the most impressive ride of the early part of the race was that of green jersey, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek). The Dane began the stage leading the points classification by 57 points, but attacked the favourites' group, bridging to the breakaway which, in turn caught Carapaz and Paret-Peintre. Pedersen then took maximum points at the intermediate sprint, securing the green jersey providing he finishes in Paris on Sunday.

By this time, with 104km to go, the peloton remained 2.20 behind, the Col du Télégraphe looming. However, by the time the leaders began to climb the peloton had slipped back a further minute, with the Visma duo of Davide Piganzoli and Bruno Amirail working for Kuss in the break.

When Carapaz won maximum points on the Télégraphe, the lead was out to 4.10, Bahrain Victorious leading the chase in defence of Lenny Martinez's fifth place overall, which was threatened by Ayuso's presence up the road. However, as the climb wore on they ran out of riders and were forced to leave the chase to UAE.

With 12km of the climb remaining, Ben Healey upped the pace for his team mate, Carapaz, reducing the break to only eight riders. Healey himself was next to drop, before Carapaz made a move 5km for the top and causing the rest of the break to shatter.

Only three men chased Carapaz, Kuss, Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon-CMA CGM) catching him 3km from the top of the 2026 Tour's highest climb. The group stayed together over the top, Carapaz taking maximum points and sealing the polka-dot jersey, but behind them the race had changed.

With Felix Grosschartner out of gas, Pogačar took over the pursuit, apparently working in support of team mate, Isaac Del Toro. Almost instantly the peloton fell apart, leaving only the yellow jersey, his team mate Isaac Del Toro, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) and Martinez in the GC group, though they crested the Galibier 4.40 behind the leading group.

The descent down to the start of the Col du Sarenne extended to almost 33km, and though Ayuso regained contact with the leaders, Riccitello was unable to hold the wheel, despite a lack of cohesion at the front. Meanwhile, Pogačar's group swelled to 10 and they began the Sarenne, 27km from the line, with a deficit of 3.22.

With Pogačar continuing to lead, that deficit briefly dropped, but attacks at the front saw it stabilise and even extend. Only when Nicolas Prodhomme upped the pace working for Seixas, did the gap begin to drop properly, but the French prodigy was isolated with 18km to go and when first Evenepoel then Del Toro and Pogačar went to the front the 19 year-old was dropped.

At the front, Kuss crested the Sarenne with an 18 second lead over Carapaz, and while Hindley was dropping back apparently to help Evenpoel, it seemed the Visma rider had the stage in the bag. However, two crashes on the run back into Alpe d'Huez put paid to that, Carapz taking full advantage.

RESULTS

TOUR DE FRANCE, STAGE 20, LE BOURG D'OISANS > ALPE D'HUEZ (170.9KM)

1. Richard Carapaz, (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, in 4:59:392. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +26
3. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +31
4. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +1:05
5. Isaac Del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, same time
6. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, +1:07
7. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:15
8. Mattias Skelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +2:55
9. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, same time
10. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon-CMA CGM, same time

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 20

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 72:53:44
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Redu Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +6:26
3. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +9:42
4. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +11:56
5. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain-Victorious, +13:02
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek,+14:59
7. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +17:48
8. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +20:00
9. Tom Pidcock (Gbr), Pinarello Q36.5, +29:28
10. Jordan Jegat (Fra) TotalEnergies, +33:21

Although we've explained why Tour de France riders' setups have become more relaxed lately, there are always exceptions. Kasper Asgreen has an extremely aggressive position on his Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo, with a huge saddle-to-bar drop paired with a long and narrow cockpit.

It's clearly something that works for the 2021 Tour of Flanders champion and stage winner at the 2023 Tour de France. As we know from speaking to Cannondale and the Dane's team, EF Education–EasyPost, Asgreen is one of the peloton's most tech-focused riders and fastidiously optimises his bike.

Being a breakaway specialist who usually wins solo or from a small group, Asgreen's position makes sense. When he gets away, he needs to be in the most aerodynamic position possible. It's not one many pros attempt to hold these days, but Asgreen has shown he can on many occasions. He's also used a few nifty tricks to help him win in these scenarios.

Let's run through the details of his Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo that we photographed at the Grand Depart and featured in our Tour de France tech gallery from Barcelona. We'll pick out a few differences from the Specialized S-Works Tarmac he rode while at Soudal–Quickstep.

Despite standing at 1.92m tall, Asgreen rides a 56cm SuperSix Evo, which is one or two sizes smaller than an amateur of the same height might ride. That explains the massive drop between the saddle, which has previously been measured at 82cm above the middle of the bottom bracket, and handlebars. He does this because the low position he wants would not be possible on the frame size up. The stack of the 58cm SuperSix is about 25mm taller than the 56cm.

Cannondale dropped the stack of the fifth-generation SuperSix by one centimetre across the range, bringing it into line with the Tarmac SL8 Asgreen raced at his previous team. Nonetheless, since joining EF Education-EasyPost, Asgreen told me he has gone slightly up and out, maintaining overall reach while flattening his torso angle. This makes that still-aggressive position easier to hold. He appears to have done this by adding a couple of spacers, using upturned hoods and benefitting from the extra reach these long SRAM Red AXS shifters bring.

At the SuperSix launch last year, Cannondale said all EF racers were narrowing their cockpits and Asgreen has followed suit, dropping down from 38cm to 36cm for this year. His SystemBar Road integrated cockpit has a 130mm effective stem length and 4cm flare. This gives more control in the drops and abides by the UCI's handlebar dimension rules requiring a 40cm outside-to-outside width.

SRAM's wireless sprint Blips are tucked into the handlebar tape on the drops. Although Asgreen isn't a sprinter, these would come in handy during a reduced group sprint, enabling him to change gear at full tilt.

Some SRAM-sponsored teams have taken advantage of the American brand's provision for 1x road drivetrains at this year's Tour. EF Education-EasyPost, however, has stuck with traditional double chainrings. Asgreen is pushing a 54/41T combo.

As pro chainrings have increased in size, so have cassettes. A choice of 10-33T or 10-36T SRAM Red AXS cassettes is the new normal for SRAM teams on rolling and hilly terrain. Not so long ago an 11-28T cassette was considered a climbing gear.

The green around the pedal thread of these SRAM Red AXS cranks denotes they measure 172.5mm. That might seem long these days, but Asgreen is very tall and would have doubtless ridden 175s previously.

A benefit of the SuperSix's low frameset weight is that riders can run deeper rims without much of an overall weight penalty. These look like 60mm-deep Vision Metron RS rims fitted with 700x30c Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres. Note that these are the non-time trial version that offers better puncture protection.

A sleeve of black fabric on the fork leg isn't the tidiest nor potentially most aero way to carry an obligatory race transponder, but it does the job here.

This quick link matches EF's pink-themed kit in a reminder than professional cycling isn't all about going fast.

Asgreen's perch of choice is the Argo Adaptive, a 3D-printed saddle from saddle-sponsor Fizik. This appears to the narrower 140mm version which is 265mm long. This level of bike has titanium hardware in the clamp to save a few grams.

Lab71 is Cannondale's highest-tier carbon, equivalent to Specialized's S-Works Fact 12r carbon. This build will set you back £11,000/ $13,499.

Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo specs

Frameset: Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo, Ultralight Series 0 Carbon
Fork: Lab71 SuperSix EVO, Ultralight Series 0 Carbon
Cockpit: Cannondale SystemBar Road, 130mm/360mm
Seatpost: Cannondale C1 Aero 40 Carbon V2
Groupset: SRAM Red AXS 54/41T, 10-33T
Wheelset: Vision Metron 60 RS
Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Pro 30mm
Saddle: Fizik Argo Adaptive

Jonathan Vaughters, the manager of EF Education-EasyPost, has defended the controversial night-time anti-doping tests that have taken place at the Tour de France, describing them as “very effective” in detecting micro-dosing.

Defending champion Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, as well as Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard, were woken up in the early hours of Sunday morning by doping control officers (DCOs) and made to provide an anti-doping sample.

Only in exceptional circumstances, and when approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and a judge, can an athlete be tested between 11pm and 6am. According to UCI rules, permission will only be granted by authorities if there is "serious and specific suspicion that the rider may be engaged in doping."

Cycling Weekly then revealed on Monday afternoon that at least two other teams in the race have had riders woken up before 6am, with some sources suggesting as many as eight teams may have been subject to night-time tests. The International Testing Agency (ITA), the body that is responsible for cycling’s anti-doping program, confirmed to CW that Pogačar and Vingegaard haven’t been the only cyclists tested outside of the “usual hours”.

In a further update, just before the start of stage 16, one team – who cannot be named for legal reasons unless they consent to being identified – informed CW that all of their riders were tested by DCOs at 10pm on Monday night. It is unusual for an entire team’s roster to be mass tested.

Vaughters admitted to taking EPO in his own racing career, including when riding at US Postal with Lance Armstrong. Since admitting to his past record, Vaughters has become one of sport’s staunchest anti-doping campaigners.

In a post on X on Monday night, the American said: “I don’t post here much. But I’ll roll this grenade down the aisle: 2am testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptides (EPO, hGH – Human Growth Hormone) and testosterone micro dosing.

“If [the] UCI had tested us in 2001 at 2am? We’d all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama.

“It’s unfortunate that Tadej and Jonas have to atone for the sh*t we did. However, I’d take some lost sleep for some gained credibility. I should apologize to both of them, honestly.”

Night-time testing is highly unusual at the Tour, but it is not without precedent. What is uncommon – and disturbing, depending on how these flurry of cases are perceived – is how many riders and teams appear to have been targeted at night during this year’s race. CW also knows of a number of 7am anti-doping controls.

Just ahead of the race, the ITA outlined its strategy for testing, stating that “around 600 in-competition samples” will be collected; that figure is on par with the number of tears conducted in recent Tours.

But the ITA added that the “final number [will be] determined based on the testing strategy, intelligence and investigations priorities and operational requirements.”

France feels stretched out sometimes. The entire country appears to just go on forever. Even in these days of immediate connection, you can feel the France that Annie Ernaux wrote about in The Years: "The gateway to the exotic was the nearest big town, the rest of the world unreal."

Nowhere is this more true than the Corrèze, through which stage nine of the Tour de France marched on Sunday, one of the least populated départments in France, a keystone in the diagonale du vide, the empty corridor that strikes through the country. It's a region that most would only know about because of the Tour, even the French.

The race is a perfect showcase for the area, just as the land is inextricably linked with the race. It helps that the Corrèze is also on the edge of the Massif Central, and so the perfect terrain for a thrilling stage of the Tour, even in a red weather warning. It was escape territory, with endless short, sharp hills which were the perfect launchpad for attacks, and so it proved.

Mathieu van der Poel triumphed from the breakaway in Ussel, with fans and the four teams represented in the breakaway relieved that it was still possible for escapees to hold off the peloton, that tactics could still outfox sheer power. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) was second, ahead of Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) and Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost).

"It turned out to be the complete chaos stage we thought it was going to be," Uno-X sports director Stig Kristiansen said post-stage.

"It was a quick start, because there was a sprint after 14km with the shortened stage. It was so warm that people would either have to go a little bit slower, or it was going to be fire because the rest day is tomorrow, and there are two more or less easy days behind them, and the peloton opted for the chaos. It never stopped."

Despite the chaos, it did not always seem like the break would make it. The men up the road were never given much leeway. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who crushed the hope of a similar move on stage three, seemed intent on doing the same again.

"It was the first time I thought it could work and I really thought I could win," fourth-placed Baudin said. "Today, for a moment, I thought we were going to get caught again, so it was a little hard in the head. But yes, I'm really happy that it went well. On stages like this, it's made for the breakaway.

"If the GC teams start to control these stages, we don't watch TV anymore. At what price? Where do we have to go? We had to fight all day long. I don't know who was driving and how he was driving behind us, but it never let up."

It was a relief, then, that the break wasn't caught, and those who had put in their all could fight it out for the win, even if it wasn't Baudin or Halland Johannessen.

"When you go in a die-hard breakaway, there are always big quality riders," Kristiansen said. "It's always going to be difficult to win. If you end up on a mountain, it'll be [Isaac] del Toro or [Juan] Ayuso, and if you end up in a sprint like this with Mathieu or Wout van Aert, it's close to impossible. Tobias did a really good sprint, but Mathieu van der Poel is super-quick. [It was] good that he is number two."

In the stretched out France, the Tour needs breaks to be able to survive in order to show off the landscape, to fill up this empty region with excitement. The Tour still visits the exotic, like the Corrèze is to many, and the unreal is still there.

Twenty eight seconds. That’s all that separated Sean Quinn from taking the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on stage three. It’s the time it might take him to put on a pair of cycling shoes, do a few pre-race stretches, or make a recovery shake. On Tuesday in Foix, it felt like an eternity.

The former US national road champion was part of a 34-man breakaway that formed out of Carcassonne. The second best placed in GC among the escapees, he began the day more than five and a half minutes behind the race leader Tadej Pogačar, and gained almost 13 minutes at the line with seventh place.

The result catapulted him up the standings. But only to second overall. The yellow jersey went instead to Uno-X’s Torstein Traæn, the breakaway’s highest GC contender by 28 seconds, who Quinn couldn’t shake off in the blazing heat of the Pyrenees. Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen took stage honours.

“I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get yellow, didn’t win the stage,” Quinn told Cycling Weekly, a resigned tone in his voice, as he stood in the shade of his EF Education-EasyPost bus. “But [Lidl-]Trek was super-strong today, and so was Torstein [Træen]. Maybe in a few days’ time we’ll see how the race develops.”

Not since Greg Lemond in 1991 has an American worn the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. (Yes, Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, David Zabriskie and George Hincapie have led the race since, but their results were later scratched off for using performance-enhancing drugs).

In the years since, Neilson Powless has come the closest – within four seconds after stage six in 2022. However, the wait for a star-spangled Tour leader now extends to three and a half decades.

Tom Southam, one of EF Education-EasyPost’s sports directors, hatched a plan to try and change that on Monday evening. “We thought it was possible today,” he said. “Andreas [Klier, sports director] and I spoke about it last night, and then we spoke about it all together with Charly [Wegelius, sports director] this morning.

“It wasn’t like we all sat on the bus and said, ‘Right, we’re going to go and take the yellow jersey.’ But we knew in the back of our minds that only a certain group of riders can be strong enough to go into the break, and [Quinn] was one of the best placed of that group who could manage to do it.

“We had in mind that the yellow jersey is always special – to take it is almost rarer than winning a stage.”

Over the last few editions of the race, EF have proved themselves capable of masterminding a stint in the race lead. They're one of only a handful of teams that have pierced through the dominance of UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike, who seem to swap the yellow jersey like twins sharing clothes.

Still, EF's Ben Healy snatched it for two days last year, Richard Carapaz for one in 2024. Might Quinn be the team's next Tour star? In the former American champion, the sports directors saw a rider brave enough to take it on.

“He gave it a good crack,” Southam said. “Especially with the heat, it was more about trying to find a way to crack Torstein Traæen, which isn’t easy; he is where he is on GC because he’s already ridden faster than Sean so far. He’s a good cyclist, he can climb well.”

And so, following Quinn closely across the line, the yellow jersey dream went to Traæn.

The reality was disheartening for the American. “I think, as a pro athlete, you’re usually going to have the mindset of what you could have done differently,” he said.

“Being second feels pretty much the same as being 56th, or whatever I was yesterday [26th – ed]. It doesn't change your life. I'm still the same guy.”

It might not have been what Quinn came for, but being second at the Tour is still something very few cyclists will ever get to say. “He’s a great kid,” said Southam, “a nice guy to have around. I hope for some big success for him.”

Ben Healy has promised to race with an "air of unpredictability" at the Tour de France as he was revealed as one of EF Education-EasyPost's eight riders for this year's race.

The Irishman finished ninth overall last year, and was one of the riders of the race for the way he relentlessly attacked on his way to a stage win and a day in the yellow jersey.

He will be joined by Richard Carapaz, Kasper Asgreen, Michael Valgren, Alex Baudin, Sean Quinn, Max Walker, and Georg Steinhauser, as the team seek to hit those highs again. Find out who else is riding the Tour here.

"Last year was a standout year and it would be amazing to replicate it, but even half that success would still be a successful Tour in my eyes," Healy said. "There’s not too much pressure – I just want to be up front and in a fight for a stage win, maybe even two. There are a lot of hard transitional stages this year, so I think there'll be plenty of opportunities for breaks."

Healy is yet to win a race in 2026, but says he is in "good shape and ready to race".

"Our team is super strong and pretty well balanced," he argued. "We can go into this Tour with any goal in mind and be adaptable to any situation. We have a lot of experience, a lot of young guys – it's going to be a fun one.

"I have had a good prep. I did an altitude camp, which I was able to do the full block of, and then Dauphiné as a prep race – even though I got sick, I didn't really miss too much and was able to get back into training fairly quickly. And yeah, some heat work in Mallorca. Hopefully that's me ready.

"I will just have to race the same way, with an air of unpredictability. Even if they know how I'm going to race, if it's still unpredictable then it's still hard to predict. Even last year people kind of knew who I was and I was still able to do it. So nothing's going to change really – just going to try and rinse and repeat."

Carapaz won the polka dot jersey along with a stage in 2024, but was forced to miss both last year's Tour and this year's Giro d'Italia.

"I'm very motivated for this Tour," the Ecuadorian said. "After a long period at home training at altitude, things have gone really, really well. I'm coming in with high motivation and, above all, high morale, which I think is crucial for starting this great race. I am very happy and very eager. I believe that's the most important thing for the start of this Tour."

Britain's Walker will make his Grand Tour debut on Saturday. "It doesn't really feel real at the moment," he said. "I don't think it will till I get there, but it's really exciting. I can't really believe it's happening."

EF Pro Cycling’s men’s and women’s teams will wear a green jersey bearing a giant alien’s head at the Giro d’Italia, as part of their tradition of swapping kits at the race.

The two WorldTour teams, EF Education-EasyPost and EF Education-Oatly, typically wear pink kit, but are unable to at the Giro due to a colour clash with the leader’s jersey.

Starting with the men’s race on 8 May, the riders will wear a design called ‘Ride in Peace’, created by Swiss clothing brand Assos, who took over supplying to the squads at the start of this season, and are continuing a trend of bold kits set by their predecessors at Rapha.

“Every year, EF Pro Cycling famously departs from its traditional pink to avoid clashing with the Giro’s iconic leader’s jersey. This year, that exchange has been replaced by a signal from beyond, hovering between space and time,” Assos wrote in a press release.

According to the brand, the launch comes at the intersection of “where interstellar design meets podium-proven performance”. The “cosmic narrative” of the kit – which also features crop-circle-like shapes and a black-and-white cow hovering upside down – is said to “transcend the earth” and “redefine what a professional cycling kit can represent”.

“We believe innovation happens when you challenge conventions,” said Assos CEO Edwin Navez, “both in how products perform and how they are expressed. Too often in this sport, performance and identity are treated separately. We don’t see it that way.”

EF made headlines in 2020 when they turned up to the Giro team presentation in a kit with a cartoon duck on the front, a collaboration between then sponsor Rapha and skateboard brand Palace. The team was subsequently fined £3,700 by the UCI for “non-compliant” clothing, which proved a small price to pay for the popularity of the limited-edition kit, which sold out in minutes.

In 2021, 2022 and 2024, the team wore predominantly black jerseys, swapping to a patchwork of colourful panels in 2023 to highlight Rapha’s ‘excess collection’ sustainability scheme. Last year, both teams wore white jerseys studded with a diamond pattern.

The men’s Giro d’Italia starts in Bulgaria on 8 May and closes on 31 May. The nine-stage women’s race will run from 31 May to 7 June.

EF’s alien-themed kit is available to buy now as part of a limited release on Assos’s website.

Soudal Quick-Step and Ineos Grenadiers will also wear different kits at the Italian Grand Tour. The former will wear a vintage cream jersey in tribute to the 150th anniversary of its kit supplier Castelli. Ineos, meanwhile, will debut a grey kit in the launch of their new identity as Netcompany-Ineos, announced last week.

Pick apart the life of the average professional cyclist and you will find a lot of bike riding, yes, but also a whole lot of waiting. Waiting in hotel rooms. Waiting on the bus. Waiting in airports. It's not surprising that many have made a second career – or at least a highly involved hobby – out of gaming, or simply whiling time away.

But not everybody has the same technique when it comes to making those long hours pass quicker. US rider Sean Quinn, for example, uses it to create: he's a music man.

While signing a WorldTour contract and all that goes with it is probably enough to keep most bike riders happy, EF Education-EasyPost's Quinn actually took up producing electronic music around about the time he stepped up to the team in pink from Hagens-Berman-Axeon at the end of 2021.

"It started as a hobby about the same time I turned pro with EF, maybe a little bit before that," he told Cycling Weekly last week. "And, yeah, I really just fell in love with it."

Quinn makes his music on a computer with the help of a small midi keyboard, creating beats and using samples – including natural sounds such as the rushing of waves or birdsong. It's ethereal and melodic and not a million miles away from The Chainsmokers, to this unschooled ear.

"I think every production is different. You can take inspiration from a lot of things," he says. "Waves and birds and atmospherics, I just think it's a cool little touch you can add. I love nature as well."

The 25-year-old climber, who won the US National Championship road race in 2024 and has become a regular fixture in stage race breakaways over the past 12 months, says his career has been soundtracked by music, without which it just wouldn't be the same.

"It's something I love," he says. "I grew up with it around me and, to me, it just goes adjacent to life. I'm always listening to music, and I always have. If I'm not, I'll have a song in my head. To me, if I look at my cycling career without the songs that went along with it, it's so boring."

Many of us are probably accustomed to having a song, or at least a beat, playing in our heads, while we're riding, especially on a longer, steadier one. That's the same for the Los Angeles native, he says, although it's sometimes a new idea – which isn't always entirely convenient.

"Every once in a while I'll get a random idea in my head," he says, "and you have to pull over immediately and hum it into voice memos, because inspiration is super fleeting. You'll forget it in two minutes if you don't basically jot it down." Sometimes it even happens in races, he says, where stopping is not an option. Usually, though, his mental soundtrack is confined to other artists' songs during competition.

We chatted to Quinn at last week's Tour of the Alps, where he was an active presence in the breakaways. He says he takes his computer with him to every race and, for the Grand Tours, even his keyboard.

"EF is great about it," he says. "All of them encourage me and and listen to my music a bit." However, while the US team may have a reputation as a bunch of freewheeling, free-thinking creatives, Quinn says he keeps things as professional as he would at any other team.

"The way I've made it work, I've been really professional in my cycling way of life, and the music doesn't take away from it, yet. So I think it could be fine with other teams as well. You know, it's when I'm sitting on the couch that I'm making music – I'm not staying up till 3am DJing raves in April."

At 25, Quinn might have 10 years or more ahead of him as a pro bike racer. Whenever he hangs up his wheels, he has a good idea of the direction he wants to go in afterwards. Clue: there's music involved.

"I'd say [for now] it's still a hobby. I'd hope to make it a career after cycling," he says. "I have a lot of friends working in the music industry, and who are actually producers themselves as well. So I see what it takes to work at that level."

One thing he might have to get used to before that happens is being able to listen to his finished music played back. It's one reason he shies away from ever playing it on the team bus, he says.

"The thing about my own music is I love it when I first come up with the idea, and by the time I finish the production, I don't like it so much," Quinn says. "That's a bridge to cross, and eventually I have to get over that. But yeah, when someone plays my music for me, it's sometimes a bit of a head bang."

You can check out Quinn's music yourself on Spotify, where he has tracks called 'Hollywood' and 'Washed Away'.

With two stage wins and overall victory in the Tour de l'Avenir last season, we already knew that Paul Seixas was packing a punch. However, according to his friend and compatriot Alex Baudin of EF Education-EasyPost who is privy to such things, Seixas enjoyed a phenomenal winter of training that saw him add 20 watts of power per month to his output. No wonder the results have begun to rack up with such apparent ease for the 19-year-old from Lyon this season.

Baudin's little snippet of insight was passed on by EF Education-EasyPost director sportif Matti Breschel, who was speaking to Danish outlet Feltlet about Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) and his Tadej Pogačar-bothering ride to second place in Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Breschel had been following Beaudin in the team car at the Monument race, which was ultimately won for a fourth time by Pogačar, and watched the battle between Seixas and the Slovenian unfold on La Redoute. It felt, said Breschel, as though the older rider was pointedly attempting to assert his authority over the French teen.

"It was as if he wanted to put him in his place. I think it went beyond simply winning the bike race. He wanted to show that young lad who the world champion is," said Breschel.

The Dane also got the impression that Pogačar had been annoyed by the amount of attention being paid to Seixas, he said.

"Everyone had been talking about Seixas in the build-up, and everyone was being asked about him. Not a single rider could walk through the mixed zone without getting a question about Seixas. In a way I think it irritated [Pogačar]."

But it was Seixas's 20 watts per month gain – according to Beaudin – that was surely the most startling observation.

"[Beaudin] said that Seixas was gaining 20 watts of power every month through the winter. That is extraordinary," Breschel said. "The question now is whether he'll make his Tour debut this season."

That certainly is one question – although another of equal gravitas, and one that Seixas, his coaches, and perhaps Pogačar are all asking, is exactly how many more watts the French rider can add to his arsenal. Also, after winning Itzulia Basque Country and La Flèche Wallonne, how much more power does Seixas need?

Alastair MacKellar freewheels down the back straight of Roubaix’s outdoor velodrome, unclips his left foot, and stops in front of his EF Education-EasyPost soigneur. The time is almost five o'clock. Half an hour has passed since Wout van Aert whipped the crowd into a frenzy by beating Tadej Pogačar in a sprint, but the atmosphere has since slumped into a lull. There's barely a patter of applause for the Australian.

In fact, most of the fans don’t notice MacKellar’s arrival at all. They've turned instead to face the big screens, squinting against the sunlight to follow the end of the women’s race. With no other riders to welcome him either, all that remains are a few photographers, three EF staff members, and a fistful of empty gel wrappers, peppered across the grass in the track centre.

On the fastest edition of Paris-Roubaix in history, MacKellar missed the 8% time cut by three minutes and 58 seconds. He finished 29 minutes and 19 seconds behind Van Aert, and almost five minutes behind the next best rider.

“It was a pretty mentally challenging day,” MacKellar told road.cc after the race. “I was out the back a fair bit earlier than I would have liked.”

The 24-year-old’s debut woes began on just the third of 30 cobbled sectors. There, some 150km from the finish line, his team leader Kasper Asgreen punctured, and MacKellar dropped back to try and pull him back into contention. Suddenly, he found himself at the back of the race.

“At first, I didn’t think I was going to finish. I was like, ‘I’ll get to the Arenberg, find someone, pull out.’ And then on the Arenberg a few guys I was with were stepping off the bike and I was like, ‘I’ll just do another couple sectors and see.’”

More than any other race, there’s a badge of honour that comes with finishing Paris-Roubaix. Riders cross the line every year with a blood and mud dried to their skin, sometimes broken bones too, all for the pride of reaching the outdoor velodrome. Joey Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5), who got caught behind crashes and finished 53 minutes down last year, perhaps summed up the sense of perseverance best when he said: “I had to finish. it didn’t matter how long it took. I thought it would be dark by the time I got here."

MacKellar felt that same doggedness on Sunday. After the Arenberg Forest, home of the most jagged and bone-rattling cobbles of the 258km route, the rest of the road felt like smooth marble. His goal to tick off one more sector became two, then three, and though he knew he was far from the pack, the fans willed him on to Roubaix.

“I had no idea what to expect,” he said. “I wasn’t able to do a recon because I was racing earlier this week and I’d never even ridden proper cobbles, so I was kind of going in quite blind.”

By the time MacKellar reached the velodrome, the commentator’s voice on the tannoy had given way to hip hop music, played as filler before the women’s race arrived.

The Australian had ridden most of 150km by himself. In doing so, he also collected another Monument feather for his cap, having only raced Milan-San Remo before. This one, he explained, brought “mixed emotions”.

“I’m the last rider and no one ever wants to come last in a bike race,” MacKellar said. “I guess now I know I can finish it, which is a nice thing.”

This time last week, EF Education-EasyPost had no WorldTour wins in 2026. As of Friday, the American squad now has two, with Michael Valgren escaping to victory on stage five of Tirreno-Adriatico.

The Dane attacked early on Friday, staying ahead of the peloton for almost 150km. He dropped his final breakaway companion, Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) on the last climb, soloing to victory. It is his first WorldTour win for eight years.

Behind, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) led the favourites in to climb into the race lead, with Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) finishing third. The previous race leader, Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) finished 19 seconds behind Del Toro, ceding the blue jersey as a result, and is now 23 seconds behind the Mexican overall. Jorgenson moved up to third on GC.

Del Toro moved off the front of what remained of the peloton with around 5km to go, with only Jorgenson able to follow on the climb of Santuario del Beato Sante.

"It's unbelievable," Valgren said. "We all work so hard for this, and I had a good winter at home with all my family, and the team supported me. I just had a baby, one month ago, and so it's for them, and for the team. I'm speechless.

"It was a really hard start with a lot of attacks, and I bridged across and we worked really well together. In the end, I thought I had good legs all day, so I wanted to make an early attack, and Julian [Alaphilippe] came with me, and we worked well together. In the end, it was such a hard day. We were pushing all day and I just had amazing legs and luck."

In 2022, Valgren crashed heavily at the Route d’Occitanie, which left him with a list of horrendous injuries, including a fractured pelvis, dislocated hip, damage to his ACL and MCL ligaments in his knee as well as a shattered meniscus.

The 34-year-old spent time on EF's development team as he rebuilt his body, and his career. Four years on, he is back on the world stage, winning races.

Two stages remain of Tirreno, although only Saturday's will likely see a general classification battle.

Results

Tirreno-Adriatico, Stage 5: Marotta-Mondolfo > Mombaroccio (184km)

1. Michael Valgren (Den), EF Education-EasyPost, in 4:43:33
2. Isaac del Toro (Mex), UAE Team Emirates - XRG, +11s
3. Matteo Jorgenson (USA), Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time
4. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor), Uno-X Mobility, +24s
5. Giulio Ciccone (Ita), Lidl-Trek, +28s
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita), Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +30s
7. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, at same time
8. Alessandro Pinarello (Ita) NSN Cycling, +40s
9. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling, +41s
10. Santiago Buitrago (Col), Bahrain Victorious, at same time

General Classification after stage 5

1. Isaac del Toro (Mex), UAE Team Emirates - XRG, in 20:10:40
2. Giulio Pelizzari (Ita), Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +23s
3. Matteo Jorgenson (USA), Visma-Lease a Bike, +34s
4. Primož Roglič (Slo), Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +44s
5. Giulio Ciccone (Ita), Lidl-Trek, +1:05
6. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor), Uno-X Mobility, +1:08
7. Alessandro Pinarello (Ita) NSN Cycling, +1:24
8. Ben Healy (Ire), EF Education-EasyPost, at same time
9. Magnus Sheffield (USA), Ineos Grenadiers, +1:27
10. Santiago Buitrago (Col), Bahrain Victorious, +1:28

Luke Lamperti claimed the first WorldTour win of his career, as he took the victory in the bunch sprint on the opening stage of Paris-Nice. It was also the first win of the season for EF Education-EasyPost, as they finally got off the mark after a difficult start to the year.

The victory was far from easy for the American rider, as a challenging finishing circuit featuring the Côte de Chanteloup-les-Vignes meant that the breakaway was only caught with just over a kilometre to go to the finish in Carrières-sous-Poissy. However, the positioning and leadout from his teammate Marijn van den Berg meant that none of his rivals were able to come around him once he launched his sprint in the final few hundred metres.

“It’s super special”, the EF Education-EasyPost rider stated in his post-race interview. “I think it’s no secret that the team’s been struggling. We’ve had a rough start to the year, but you always know it will come. It’s still early and to get a victory here is super nice. The team rode full all day, we committed and it paid off. We’ve been knocking on the door, but to actually get the job done is super special. It’s also my first victory with the team and it’s a nice way to start.”

When asked about the difficulty of the finishing circuit, Lamperti said, “the climb was quite, but we had Max [Walker] in the break and he was super strong. We had a few cards to play if the break made it, so that was also okay for us. Then we came back and did the sprint, so in the end it was a beautiful day.”

Speaking about the final kilometre, he went on to say, “it was super hectic. We had [Kasper] Asgreen and [Alastair] Mackellar there, and then Marijn van den Berg was the last guy. We started quite early, he went from far, but luckily he was super strong and he did maybe 350m himself to deliver me into the last 200m, so in the end I just had to do the final few metres on my own.”

A major result like this had certainly been on the cards for Lamperti after top-ten results at both Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne last weekend, and he has certainly made himself one to watch for the rest of the Spring Classics.

On the confidence this win will give him for the races ahead, he said “I know I’ve been going well. To actually get a win and get the momentum rolling, especially as a sprinter, is really important. For me, it's the biggest win I’ve had in my career, so it will be great for the rest of the season and for the Classics.”

Having moved across to EF Education-EasyPost after two years at Soudal Quick-Step, Lamperti was asked about how he has settled into his new team, to which he said, “of course it’s different, but it’s been super nice. I already feel quite at home and I’ve enjoyed it a lot, so I think so far I really can’t complain with the new team.”

Victory on the opening stage also meant that the American rider pulled on the yellow jersey, as he took the overall lead of the race ahead of another sprint stage tomorrow, with the race heading south from Épône to Montargis.

“To have the jersey tomorrow will be super special. It's my first WorldTour win, my first time wearing a WorldTour leader’s jersey, so a lot of firsts this week, but it will be nothing but nice,” said Lamperti.

How It Happened

At 171km in length, the opening stage of this year’s edition of Paris-Nice started to the northwest of Paris in the town of Achères. An out-and-back loop took the riders through the countryside of the Yvelines department before arriving onto the finishing circuit around Carrières-sous-Poissy with 33km to go, which featured the category three climb of the Côte de Chanteloup-les-Vignes.

It did not take long for the early breakaway to form at the beginning of the day, with Casper Pedersen (Soudal Quick-Step), Luke Durbridge (Jayco AlUla), Patrick Gamper (Jayco AlUla), Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost), Mathis Le Berre (TotalEnergies) and Sébastien Grignard (Lotto-Intermarché) forming a six-man group at the head of the race.

Despite the strength of the leading group, the peloton managed to keep the breakaway on a tight leash throughout the day, with their lead never allowed to go above a minute and a half. There was an array of jerseys at the front of the main bunch, as various teams looked to take control and keep their leaders safe on what is often a very hectic opening stage.

It was Pedersen who emerged victorious in a battle with his breakaway companions Le Berre and Walker for the lead in the mountains classification, as the Dane took maximum points on the Côte de Gargenville, Côte de Vaux-sur-Seine and the first ascent of the Côte de Chanteloup-les-Vignes to secure the polka-dot jersey at the end of the day.

Gamper then took maximum points at the intermediate sprint as they went onto the final lap of the finishing circuit with 17km to go. It was at this point that those in the leading group began to believe that they could go all the way, as their lead hovered around a minute and fifteen seconds over the peloton.

The attacks began as they went onto the final ascent of the Côte de Chanteloup-les-Vignes, with Le Berre getting a small gap over his breakaway companions, which was swiftly closed over the top of the climb by Pedersen, Gamper, Walker and Grignard.

Visma-Lease a Bike then came to the front of the main bunch with around 9km, which ultimately sounded the death knell for the breakaway, as their gap began to tumble as they entered the closing kilometres. Grignard was the last to be caught with 1.3km to go, with the sprinters’ teams coming to the fore to position their fast men.

A tight ninety-degree corner just inside the final kilometre saw three riders hit the deck in a crash involving Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), before Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) was then involved in another crash slightly further up the road, which caused a few riders to be held up in the peloton.

Meanwhile, Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) had used that final turn to position himself behind Cees Bol (Decathlon CMA CGM), with his teammate Luke Lamperti on his wheel. Van den Berg then began his final leadout with around 550m to go, before perfectly delivering Lamperti into the final few hundred metres for the sprint.

Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling) attempted to challenge the American for the victory, but found himself boxed-in against the barriers, with Vito Braet (Lotto-Intermarché) coming closest to snatching the win with a move around the outside on the other side of the road.

Nobody could deny Lamperti the victory in the end though, as he punched the air and clapped his hands in celebration as he crossed the line.

There was no time lost for any of the GC contenders on the opening stage, as the three-kilometre rule was in effect and those that were involved in any of the crashes received the same time as the stage winner.

Results

Paris-Nice 2026: Stage One, Achères > Carrières-sous-Poissy (171km)

1. Luke Lamperti (USA) EF Education-EasyPost, in 3:45:17
2. Vito Braet (Bel) Lotto-Intermarché
3. Orluis Aular (Ven) Movistar
4. Milan Fretin (Bel) Cofidis
5. Biniam Girmay (Eri) NSN Cycling
6. Jensen Plowright (Aus) Alpecin-Premier Tech
7. Mike Teunissen (Ned) XDS Astana
8. Sakarias Koller Løland (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
9. Axel Zingle (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike
10. Robert Donaldson (GBr) Jayco AlUla, all at same time

General Classification after Stage One

1. Luke Lamperti (USA) EF Education-EasyPost, in 3:45:07
2. Vito Braet (Bel) Lotto-Intermarché, +4s
3. Orluis Aular (Ven) Movistar, +6s
4. Casper Pedersen (Den) Soudal Quick-Step, at same time
5. Milan Fretin (Bel) Cofidis, +10s
6. Biniam Girmay (Eri) NSN Cycling
7. Jensen Plowright (Aus) Alpecin-Premier Tech
8. Mike Teunissen (Ned) XDS Astana
9. Sakarias Koller Løland (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
10. Axel Zingle (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike, all at same time

Noah Hobbs was saved by a local fan after getting lost during Omloop Nieuwsblad on Saturday.

After sustaining two unlucky mechanicals during the race in Belgium, the 21-year-old got lost trying to return to the bunch.

"It was going well, and then I got a puncture,” the EF Education-EasyPost rider explained in a video on Instagram. “I came back, broke my front wheel, then went to go back, but I don't know where I was. Then this guy helped me out and took me [to the finish]."

"He's a good guy. Without him, I think I'd still be somewhere in Belgium," he said.

It’s not unheard of for riders to get lost during races. Massimo Ghirotto finished the 14th stage of the 1988 Tour de France with an uncontested win after the race-leaders took a wrong turn.

In 2015, the Danish rider Lasse-Norman Hansen won the fifth stage of the Tour of Alberta after his chaser Sven Erik Bystrøm missed a turning, taking the entire peloton with him. To get entirely lost, however, is a rarer occurrence, possibly down to misleading signage.

With no phone to navigate him back-on track and little knowledge of the local roads, Hobbs was rescued by a passing fan and returned to the finish.

“Another reason why we love racing in Belgium,” the team wrote on Instagram of the incident. “Shout out to our new friend.”

Hobbs wasn’t the only rider waylaid during the race. Of the 175 riders who lined up on Saturday, only 136 crossed the finish line. Among the injured were Stefan Küng (Tudor Pro Cycling) with a fractured femur, Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling) with two broken teeth and Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain Victorious) with a broken collarbone.

The severity of the injuries sustained by cyclists this year, coupled with the wet conditions prompted Arnaud De Lie (Lotto–Intermarché) to call it “the most dangerous Omloop of my life” in a conversation with Sporza.

Neilson Powless is to miss the Classics season after being forced to have surgery on his left knee after persistent pain, his team announced on Wednesday.

The American EF Education-EasyPost rider made his season debut at the Tour de la Provence earlier in February, but has now been forced off his bike.

"At least now we can say that the problem is solved and I can move forward with a clear path of recovery," Powless said, in a statement released by the team. The 29-year-old won Dwars door Vlaanderen in memorable circumstances last year.

"It is extremely disappointing to be missing out on the Classics. I was excited to try some new races this year. I had a plan of races I wanted to target and do well in, so this is a big disappointment. This spring will be a recovery period for me. I'll be able to watch my teammates on TV and spend extra time with my family, and hopefully bring some extra motivation and energy for the second half of the season.

"This is not something that's going to take me out for a really long time, but it's something that we will need to be cautious with. It will be a couple of months before I can plan a race, but it's nice to have a clear plan of recovery."

Powless had previously been set to race a number of one-day races this spring, including the E3 Saxo Classic, Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

"Over the course of the last two months, I had three scans of my knee and the first two showed really promising recovery," Powless continued. "After the second one, I was able to return to training pain-free, which was promising. I was even feeling strong enough to go to a race and start my preparations for the season, but on the third day of the race, I felt pain again and had to stop. I had another scan done, and it showed that the inflammation had never fully gone away, even though I couldn't feel it.

"Surgery was going to give me the highest chance of success, so we opted for surgery. It’s my first surgery ever, but I was in good hands with the doctors here. Together, with the medical staff from the team, we were always making decisions together, and everyone's on the same page about recovery and where to go from here."

EF Pro Cycling Head Doctor Jon Greenwell added that he expects Powless to make a full recovery and be ready to resume training in eight to twelve weeks. No date has been set on his return to racing.

"Surgery to remove the inflammatory tissue gave us a much better chance of a permanent fix," Greenwell said. "The operation went well, and after the eight- to twelve-week recovery window, Neilson will be able to return to riding with no long-term impairment from the injury."

Former WorldTour pro Andrea Piccolo, sacked by EF Education-EasyPost on dope-trafficking allegations, has been arrested in Italy after being found in possession of counterfeit cash.

The 24-year-old Italian was stopped while driving a Porsche Macan at the Piazza Municipio in Naples, accompanied by two other men, according to Italian media.

The Carabinieri who carried out the stop noticed a piece of paper protruding from under the steering wheel which, upon investigation, revealed €2,000 in counterfeit €20 notes. A telescopic truncheon was also found in the car, according to the report in NapoliToday.it.

All three men are now in custody and awaiting trial, charged with the unlawful possession of offensive objects.

Piccolo graduated to EF Education-EasyPost from the Italian Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli ProContinental team during the 2022 season. However, he lasted less than two years there before being suspended without pay for taking a non-team-approved sleeping aid in March 2024.

Three months later, following a border stop by Italian authorities in conjunction with the International Testing Agency, Piccolo was dismissed by the team with immediate effect under suspicion of transporting growth hormone. He ultimately admitted to transporting four undisclosed substances from Colombia in a text to Jonathan Vaughters.

After his cycling career ended, the Italian opened up an OnlyFans page, promising 'a personal uncensored insight into the life of a professional cyclist', including 'training, food, sleep, repeat' and of course, it being OnlyFans, more besides.

In terms of his actual racing career, Piccolo showed early promise, winning national and European time trial titles as a junior rider and, having turned senior, soon found himself at the Astana team in 2021.

Having been sidelined there because of a health issue, he moved to Gazprom-Rusvelo where he netted a string of impressive results, including 11th at Il Lombardia and 10th in the Bretagne Classic-Ouest France, both WorldTour-ranked races. However, he posted few standout results after joining EF Education, the exception, perhaps, being a fourth place on stage six of the 2024 Giro d'Italia, in what was the last event he rode. His career ended unremarkably – a DNF on the mountainous stage 19 to Sappada of that same race.

EF Pro Cycling is searching for a new title partner to help achieve their aim of winning the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in the next decade, the team announced on Friday.

The American squad made the relatively novel step of going public with their search for a new sponsor, which they described as an "unprecedented and unique opportunity". The outfit consists of the men's WorldTour team EF Education-EasyPost, and Women's WorldTour team EF Education-Oatly.

Both teams will still be owned by EF Education First but "first naming rights" are on offer, with the aim to bring on a new partner to help the team compete with their wealthiest rivals.

In a press release, EF stated three bold aims: to win the Tour de France Femmes in the next three years; to continue building "the world leading development pathway in professional cycling"; and to win both the men's and women's Tours within the next decade through riders produced through their own system.

"It’s rare in professional sport, and nearly unheard of in cycling, for an owner and anchor partner to commit long-term at EF’s current level and still invite an additional title partner to invest purely to make the team stronger," Jonathan Vaughters, EF Pro Cycling's CEO, said in a statement.

"We owe a great deal to EF. They recognize the incredible opportunity we have to keep building something truly special.

"Our sport has changed dramatically over the past two decades. WorldTour budgets have risen at an unprecedented pace, and we see this as an opportunity to partner with a brand that shares our vision of winning at the highest level while staying true to who we are."

The team has a history of over two decades, with the men's squad being on the WorldTour since 2009. They became EF in 2018, after what was then Cannondale-Drapac turned to crowdfunding to try and secure their future. Riders were free to sign elsewhere as doubts magnified over the team's viability, but it was secured with investment from EF, an international education company.

The Women's WorldTour team was founded in 2023, but was a phoenix team from EF Education–Tibco–SVB. They became a Women's WorldTour outfit this season.

"This is a unique opportunity for an organization to partner with a global team and organization such as EF," EF Education First global chief of staff and president Maria Norrman said.

"Together, we can build a team that extends far beyond traditional sponsorship, creating lasting value and impact for years to come."

"Title sponsorship amplifies the reach to the cycling audience, and EF Pro Cycling is well positioned to benefit from the trends and growth in the cycling audience and viewership," Nielsen Sports Commercial director and head of cycling Jerome Bouchat added.

"This team cultivates its own image to stand out and understands that to attract brands, it must be as visible as possible and offer powerful storytelling."

If you're interested in partnering with the team, you're invited to email hello@efprocycling.com.

Last summer, as many as 15 Tour de France teams were looking for new sponsors; EF's public bid is the team putting themselves on the market.

It's just one month into 2026, and the pace race is well and truly underway with Tudor Pro Cycling and EF Education-EasyPost spotted aboard new time trial bikes at Trofeo Ses Salines in Mallorca. Stefan Kung was seen riding what appears to be an all-new BMC Timemachine, while the entire EF Education-EasyPost team was racing on what is unmistakably a new Cannondale SuperSlice in Lab71 guise.

The Cannondale SuperSlice Disc was originally launched in 2017 and updated again in 2021 as a second-generation model, adopting a look more akin to the SystemSix, but with time-trial extensions. The bike wasn't readily available in the UK, with limited quantities assigned to Europe and the United States. While it was in line with best time trial bike design trends, the increased focus on time trials at WorldTour events for 2026 and beyond has forced Cannondale to radically rethink its outlook on time trial bike research and development – after all, time trials are where brands test future technology that will eventually filter down into regular road bikes.

From the pictures, the new SuperSlice's clean-slate design signals a clear new direction for the American company. Based on the Lab71 nomenclature, we can assume the new frame architecture is made of Series 0 carbon fibre, which means it should be lighter than the model it replaces. The tube shapes are very sculptural, with a notably deep, reprofiled head tube, a chunkier fork, and a more optimised rear end and seat tube cutout. The bikes are all painted black, with contrasting white Cannondale wordmark logos on the downtubes.

The most notable change is the move to a newer mono-stack basebar, complete with Vision Metron TFE Evo extensions. The front end looks a lot more aero than before, with integration very much the order of the day. Vision also handles the wheels, which take the form of a Metron TFW disc and front system. As reported in our fifth-generation SuperSix Evo story from the Tour Down Under, EF Education-EasyPost is using SRAM-supplied groupsets. As a result, the new SuperSlice Lab71s are equipped with SRAM Red AXS componentry.

While we can't confirm whether the new SuperSlice will use the Delta Steerer (a triangular-shaped steerer tube designed to route internal cables without the need for an oversized 1.5-inch upper headset bearing), given the complex front-end plumbing of time trial bikes, we do expect it to be implemented, along with wider tyre clearance and a UDH dropout assembly.

We'll update this new story with all the facts and numbers once the bike is officially launched.

Ben Healy has signed a long-term contract extension with EF Education-EasyPost, which will see him racing in pink until at least 2029.

The deal was announced on Wednesday afternoon, with EF Pro Cycling CEO Jonathan Vaughters saying that "Ben is what we want as a leader". His previous contract was set to run out at the end of 2026.

The Irishman joined the WorldTour in 2022 with the American team, and has made a name for himself in hilly Classics and lumpy Grand Tour stages. He won a stage of the Giro d'Italia in 2023 after finishing second at the Amstel Gold Race.

Last year, Healy won a stage of the Tour de France and wore the yellow jersey as part of his best season yet; he also finished on the podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the World Championships.

"I’m close mates with the guys on the team, and that creates an infectious atmosphere that brings everyone closer together," Healy said in a statement.

"It’s not just us guys, it’s everyone, all the staff. There’s not a race or a training camp you go to where you are disappointed to be there. It’s always good fun and the dinner table’s always a great laugh. We spend so many days on the road, so that is super important. It makes you work that bit harder for each other."

As for the future: "I just need to continue being myself," Healy argued. "I want to lead by example. I want to go about it how I always have done. I love the process of getting better. Coming out of the offseason, after not riding my bike for a couple of weeks, I was so excited to get back into that process. I find it so rewarding.

"To be here in this position with the palmarès that I have is something I’m super proud of. I have grown so much as a rider and really refined my craft. I’ve never lost the hunger for it."

"He is thoughtful and always seeking to improve," Vaughters said. "Most importantly, he is always willing to risk. Our team has and always will be built on the outsider willing to take a chance. Ben is that."

"When I first joined the team, I might have seemed like a crazy guy, but there’s obviously something to it and we’ve worked well together," Healy continued. "A big part of that from my side was definitely my coach, Jacob Tipper, who is here on the team now as well. For sure, we’re moving in a really nice direction with ASSOS and our Cannondale bikes. To be honest, it can’t get much better."

"The racing is just a bonus at the end,” he said. "Getting to that place where I know I can go compete with the best is what motivates me. I enjoy racing and I enjoy being at the front of a race, but if you don’t put in the work, you’re not going to be there.

"The wins are obviously amazing, but it’s just getting to the point where you are able to race and compete to win those races that drives me."

A Giro d'Italia stage winner and, at 23, with a whole heap of potential ahead of him, EF Education-EasyPost rider Georg Steinhauser was at a loss. Training on the bike had become like riding through treacle and, now, he had spent three full days sitting in his apartment feeling down, seeing no one and "without even opening a single window". Something had to change.

To a casual onlooker, it might have appeared that Steinhauser was suffering from a depressive episode. But, as he found out after a series of tests, his low mood was actually a symptom of Lyme disease and caused by a tick bite.

The illness only shows up in a small percentage of those bitten by ticks, and is characterised by a variety of symptoms that can include fever, fatigue, brain fog and depressive episodes. In most cases it can be treated with antibiotics.

"I was having mental problems, I was really down," Steinhauser told the German Press Agency (DPA), as reported by kicker.de. "Actually, I was bordering on depression. That was my conclusion."

Steinhauser was also experiencing difficulties on the bike. "Two hours of training felt like four," he said. His appetite for riding and racing had plummeted and he had lost weight too, falling from 70-71kg to 67kg.

"I simply lacked power during training, I had no energy," he said. "Once, I even cut a training session short and took the train home. The whole situation was really tough on me mentally."

Only a year previously, Steinhauser had taken his first pro win in the most illustrious way imaginable – taking a solo mountains victory in his first ever Grand Tour, finishing 1.24 ahead of runner-up Tadej Pogačar on stage 17 of the Giro. Now he was struggling to ride, let alone win.

The team doctors at EF Education-EasyPost conducted a battery of tests without managing to pinpoint the issue, Steinhauser revealed: "Nobody really knew what was wrong," he said. "I had everything checked: blood test, stool sample. But nothing showed up."

In the end it was his family doctor who ordered a test for Lyme disease and, finally, the problem revealed itself. "That's how we found out. Of course, it was helpful for me that we at least had a reason," Steinhauser said.

The German is far from the first bike rider to have been diagnosed with Lyme disease. Early last year Belgium's Arnaud De Lie was diagnosed after having to pull out of the Spring Classics.

Now 24 and having completed a training camp in November, the German is back on track. "At the moment I feel good, mentally as well," he says.

With another year on his contract, and ambitions of becoming a GC contender, perhaps 'Steini' will be able to return to the Grand Tours in 2026 and even repeat his Giro feat.

As we hit January, it is more than the time for pro cycling teams to release their new kits for 2026. For some, this is the best part of the year, before the reality of racing gets involved, when we can just imagine how good the jerseys will look on the road.

Rather than writing up each team individually, we thought it would work better if we collated them together, unless someone does something mad. When all the kits are out, we can do our usual arbitrary evaluation of them too, so do look out for that. In this guide, we will cover all the WorldTour teams, and notable other squads, but not all, otherwise it will get a bit overwhelming, apart from particular exceptions.

If you would rather find out which team riders will be appearing for next year, rather than what they will be wearing, you can find that on our comprehensive transfer guide for 2026 too.

Teams have also changed names – Israel-Premier Tech to NSN Cycling, Alpecin-Deceuninck to Alpecin-Premier Tech, and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale to Decathlon CMA CGM and more – so that will have an impact on the kits too.

While teams will have tried to keep the fresh designs under wraps, a few have leaked into the public domain. However, this list will only have confirmed designs. So far, those who are fans of garish outfits should be pleased.

So far, we are only certain of a few kits for next season, but more will appear in the coming weeks or days. We'll update this as we go!

Picnic PostNL

If I were to play spot the difference, I would be hard pushed with the 2026 Picnic PostNL kit. It remains navy and orange, with the 'Keep Challenging' stripes, and the name is the same too. There are a couple of new sponsors on there, and this is apparently different, but that's it.

As the press release says: "Clear and vibrant amongst the colourful peloton: fans, commentators and pundits alike won’t have to re-adjust for the 2026 campaign as they can expect to see the two orange stripes from those helicopter shots on even the foggiest of days."

Pinarello-Q36.5

It's a continuation of navy for the renamed Pinarello-Q36.5, but no white sleeves this year. Instead, this smart jersey is fully navy, with fancy gold accents. The bikes don't look bad either...

According to Q36.5's founder, Luigi Bergamo: "The new jersey design evolves the visual language we began developing last season to reflect the Italian values of premium, daring, design that we share with Pinarello.

"The result is a kit that allows our riders to feel, from the very first moment they pull on the kit, that they are part of something special and unique: the only team in the professional peloton founded and powered by Italian technical partners. We can’t wait to see this jersey (and our iconic Dottore bib shorts!) racing sharp at the front of the bunch."

Jayco AlUla and Liv AlUla Jayco

MAAP entered WorldTour cycling with their Jayco AlUla and Liv AlUla Jayco kits, and have stuck to their theme from 2025 with this purple – sorry, "Aurora" – jersey, paired with dark grey shorts.

The new addition is the flame motif, which stretches to the socks, which is a bit of fun.

MAAP's creative director, Misha Glisovic, said: "MAAP has always been driven to push the boundaries. It’s core to who we are and how we see our place in the sport. We want to use design to broaden the appeal of pro cycling, nudging the sport towards something more stylish and aspirational. Ultimately, we want to be true to our values at MAAP, and GreenEDGE shares this vision."

Human Powered Health

Women's WorldTour squad Human Powered Health have partnered with Verge Sport for their new kit. The new design keeps the orange/red/purple that we have become used to for the team, but in a new pattern, which is called 'Tailwind'. It's designed "to embody speed, motion, and momentum".

The press release says the jersey has a "rich, sweeping warm-to-cool colour gradient that represents Human Powered Health’s Pillars of Performance". It'll be paired with black shorts.

Lotto-Intermarché

The newly merged Lotto-Intemarché go with the red of Lotto for 2026. The kit is a dark-ish red, paired with black shorts, and there isn't really too much more to say about it. It's smart!

According to the statement: "In terms of colour, both main sponsors, Intermarché and Lotto, were already allies: their brand colours red and black dominate the design. The meaningful, subtle fingerprint pattern further strengthens the bold look."

Bahrain Victorious

Bahrain Victorious have been red, orange, purple, and white, but never blue. That changes in 2026, when the team, now riding Bianchi bikes, will be in navy blue with teal sleeves.

The press release reveals deeper meanings: "At the heart of the kit sits a deep navy, a colour that has been part of the team’s identity since its foundation. Subtly woven into the design is a faint “X” that crosses the jersey, the Roman numeral representing ten years in the sport.

"On the sleeves of the jersey, Bianchi’s iconic Celeste is distinctly featured, perfectly matching the shallow blue waters and teal tones that represent Bahrain’s two seas."

Visma-Lease a Bike

The men and women of Visma-Lease a Bike will continue in yellow for 2026, wearing a kit made by Nimbl, who are more known for their cycling shoes.

According to Francesco Matrone, graphic designer at Nimbl: "In a WorldTour context, design must be essential, intentional, and instantly recognizable. One of our key goals was to create a visual identity that's identifiable at speed and reflects performance and clarity. It must be unmistakably Visma-Lease a Bike. Every graphic element is functional, integrated, and designed to perform under pressure.”

EF Pro Cycling

EF Education–EasyPost and EF Education–Oatly will remain pink next year, but have switched kit suppliers from Rapha to Assos.

Assos says the 2026 kit reflects a "forward-looking mindset" with a "bold colour palette" that evolves EF Pro Cycling’s unmistakable visual identity while introducing "a new, almost other-worldly energy to the peloton."

The silver bits are fun, and pink is always good to me – I just wonder what's going to happen when the Giro d'Italia comes around.

Alpecin-Premier Tech and Fenix-Premier Tech

It's a brand new name for Alpecin-Premier Tech and Fenix-Premier Tech – no more Deceuninck – but not a completely new kit, with similar vibes for the WorldTour and Women's WorldTour teams. The men's team has a kit made by Kalas, which is the same blue as before, more or less, but with a bit more of a light grading across the chest.

The women's team, meanwhile, wear a kit made by Alé, which is pretty similar to the orange of 2025, and there doesn't seem to be the green and blue options from before.

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto are usually found in a bold, colourful kit, and next season is no different. This is Luminous, designed by Mckenzie Sampson and made by Canyon. It takes a dark purple base and merges it with turquoise, pink, coral and red.

Sampson said: "I’ve always found Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto to be an aspiring light within the peloton. They’re a team that gives a unique platform to a diverse set of riders across the globe to get their big break in cycling. To visually illustrate that sense of light and hope, we wanted the kit design to be bold yet convey the right balance of contrasting light, unique patterns, and rich saturated moments of colour."

AG Insurance-Soudal

AG Insurance-Soudal have mostly the same kit as their brother team Soudal Quick-Step, just with different sponsors. There is a new logo, too: Datashift, a Belgian leader in data solutions and strategy.

It's a blue base, with green accents across, with a white band across the chest for AG Insurance.

Ineos Grenadiers

There was rumour and speculation that it might happen, but now it is official... Ineos Grenadiers will be wearing WHITE yes WHITE shorts next season. Well, it's technically 'light grey', but come on.

Orange is the main colour on the jersey for the first time, after various blues and reds, but it is the white that stands out. It's as striking, if not more so, as AG2R's famous brown shorts, and we wonder how the riders are feeling about it...

The press release says: "The design was created with a clear purpose: immediate recognition. The exclusive use of this orange ensures a striking presence in the peloton, while the white panels on the lower sections add balance and clarity, allowing the leading colour to shine with harmonious strength. The result is a sophisticated, functional and memorable kit."

Apparently: "Orange is the new uniqueness. Orange is the new icon." Read our opinion on it here.

Soudal Quick-Step

It's evolution not revolution for Soudal Quick-Step in 2026, who have a similar kit to this season, but green rather than white as the accent colour, along with the classic blue.

According to the team: "The new design incorporates a vivid electric-lime element, a deliberate move inspired by the Shine for Safety visibility campaign launched during this year’s Ardennes Classics."

There is a lot more green on the back, which will help them stand out, apparently. It's a nice wavy pattern. The kit is designed and made by Castelli.

FDJ United-SUEZ

If you're thinking "I've seen this kit before", you would be right. FDJ United-SUEZ will be wearing their 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift kit full-time next year. It's largely black, with an explosion of red and blue on the chest.

The press release says about the Gobik kit: "The jersey reflects the unseen hours of the sport: training sessions before dawn, rides in the rain, the fear and doubts of a jour sans. In contrast, a vivid halo of light rises on the chest, symbolising the inner spark that transforms sacrifice into brilliance at the moment of victory.

Demi Vollering won't be in this kit, given the Dutchwoman is European champion.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

UAE Team Emirates-XRG rarely mix the colour palette up too much, and 2026 will be no different – it's largely white, with black and red trim, but it definitely has changed since last season.

The Pissei kit, handcrafted at the brand's Italian Custom Lab, has some fun geometric patterns on the stormach of the jersey, with black on the arms too. Don't expect to see Tadej Pogačar in this one, however, considering he is world champion.

Movistar

It's a second year in a row in white for Movistar, who have ditched the navy box across the chest for this cleaner offering. There is the classic M on the front, and some accents across the rest of the front.

Apparently: "Gobik sought a futuristic aesthetic, an evolution that projects innovation and performance on a white base. Technological textures, iridescent graphics and subtle transparencies were combined to create a striking design that reflects the identity and avant-garde spirit of the team." Avant-garde. Right.

Lidl-Trek

Lidl-Trek's kit is different. Definitely. There's less red on the front, more blue, and there's a new sponsor on the front, but it is, essentially, the same as last year. There's nothing wrong with that! It's a good kit! "Our favourite colours" is what the team said. Keep it simple. The men and women use the same kit, which is good.

The team say: "With a fresh twist on a fan-favorite design, Santini have delivered again with the 2026 Lidl-Trek kit. Pairing the ultimate fabrics with playful colours, the latest design delivers looks as well as performance."

Decathlon CMA CGM

Sadly, there's no exciting bumf to go with the new Decathlon CMA CGM kit, but with a new name comes a new colour - red. The brown shorts are sadly still in the dustbin of history, with new sponsors CMA CGM bringing the new colour. One sleeve is still teal (?) while the other is a lot darker, rather than the dark blue it was before.

Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe

Now, Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe's kit is yet to be officially announced, but seeing as all the riders in the plane stunt were wearing a new kit, let's assume this is the new one for 2026. It's a lot whiter than before, with royal blue sleeves, and less navy. It is similar to the special kit they used at the Tour de France this season.

SD Worx-Protime

SD Worx-Protime have veered away from the purple and pinks of recent years, and instead will race in this primary colour-heavy jersey which is called "New Dawn"

It's designed by Specialized, and is paired with black shorts. Notably, Lotte Kopecky will be racing in it, no longer being world, European, or Belgian champion, for once.

According to the press release: "The new jersey reflects the team’s and sponsors’ ongoing drive for innovation. Standing still is not an option – continuously reinventing ourselves in every aspect is a core value at SD Worx-Protime. The new design symbolises our rich history through the spark, now multiplied and displayed in various shades. This emphasises the team’s slogan: we spark success."

NSN Cycling

The team formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech have become NSN Cycling, and will be wearing a busy kit next season, with a base of sky blue and orange. The jury is out over whether this will be easy to notice or to lose in the peloton. They're also riding Scott bikes now.

If you want to know why it looks like this, the press release says: "It's designed by Stijn Dossche of stycle.design, is inspired by the Mediterranean city from which the team’s new identity has been forged.

"Its design blends geometry, colour blocks, and patterns reminiscent of contemporary Barcelona - a city that never stands still, where tradition meets modernity, where Mediterranean light becomes art, and movement becomes identity."

Just in time for the Tour de France Grand Départ in July, then – that's in Barça.

Groupama-FDJ United

Another new name, though less dramatic, is Groupama-FDJ United. The French stalwarts are slow to change their kits, normally, and the same is true next year. It's the fetching number they wore at this year's Tour, although it's now made by Bioracer rather than Alé. Essentially, it's royal blue with a red accent sleeve.

Cofidis

Cofidis are another French team barely changing their kit for 2026. The men's and women's teams, now both ProTeams, will use the same red and yellow jersey as this season, although the shades might have been slightly altered, and the sponsors have moved around a bit.

Just a month ago, James Shaw was looking down the barrel of 2026 without a contract. His current team EF Education-EasyPost was yet to renew his contract, and he was having to contemplate a future off the WorldTour. Now that’s all changed.

‘It was such a shit situation to be in,” Shaw told his 4000+ YouTube followers as he climbed up an Andorran mountain. “I feel like I’ve given EF so much. I really wanted to get back on the bike.”

The 29-year-old had, at the end of the 2025 season, completed the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España. This year, only 29 riders raced more than he did.

But come November, Shaw was still unsure who he would be racing for in the new year. His subscriptions - including a Hexis nutrition subscription - had been cancelled, and he had been forced to seek out his own coach as EF contemplated his future.

“It was just a horrible situation to be in and I don’t wish it on my deepest darkest enemies," he continued. "But hey, that’s how it is.”

Shaw attributes his situation to industry-wide complications. As Lotto and Intermarché merge, and French men's WorldTour team Arkéa-B&B Hotels folds, there is a slew of talented riders also looking for contracts. “There are 60 guys without contracts. And from what I’ve heard from teams, there are only six or seven places left on teams.”

“I don't think my situation is due to a lack of results or performances. I feel like my results show that I perform well in those top races,” Shaw told Cycling Weekly last month.

“I also think that the sport is going in the direction of quantity or quality: you see guys racing less and less but at a higher level and the toll of racing is getting more and more. For me to have the performances I have had and still had the quantity of race days was impressive I think.

“Unlike the top guys, I don’t have time to do an altitude camp or dieting, nor have the time to control the fatigue load. So I’m really content with what I’ve done and achieved this year. I’ve stood on the podium in a few races and had a good crack from the breakaway in a few stages of the Vuelta.”

After delivering the good news to his YouTube followers, Shaw is set to enter the new year with a renewed motivation: “I can sleep well now and enjoy the process a bit more,” he said.

Esteban Chaves has retired from pro cycling, saying that he is "very happy to close this chapter" of his life.

The 35-year-old, a former winner of Il Lombardia and multiple stage victor at the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, announced the decision in a YouTube video published by EF Pro Cycling on Monday.

In the video, the Colombian says: "The decision is the right one."

"I am very happy. I am very proud of the sporting career I have had. I’m very happy to close this chapter in the way we are closing it. Who am I without my bike? Without the bike, I am Esteban. I am a son, I am a brother, I am a husband, I am a father. I am a human being who dreams of setting an example, who dreams of being at peace, who dreams of having a lot of contact with nature. I am a human being who learns."

Chaves spent eight seasons with Orica GreenEDGE, which became Mitchelton-Scott, during which time he won three stages at the Giro and two at the Vuelta, also finishing on the podium of both in 2016.

Since 2022, he rode for EF Education-EasyPost, for whom his last race was this year's Vuelta. His last victory was the 2023 Colombian National Championships, but his proudest moment that year was the birth of his daughter. As well as his success on the bike, Chaves was a fan favourite for his sunny personality.

"Cycling has been an indispensable and fundamental part of my life," he says in the EF film. "And it has shaped the person and character I am. What I felt the first time I rode a bicycle, I still feel now.

"I'm 35 years old, I completed my primary schooling but not much more, so you're kind of pigeonholed into the role of being a cyclist. You think you can't do anything else, that you don't know what you can learn. That's completely false."

"What will happen when the Grand Tours tart and I'm no longer there, when' its no longer my goal. What will I feel?" Chaves asks. "It's a fear that will come when the time comes, it will be faced and the feelings and everything will be seen."

He continues: "Not having a marked path, not having a route to take gives me the creeps, it terrifies me, it scares me, it excites me... I respect that.

"Now I want to experience and feel that it's ok to fail. That it's alright, that nothing happens. It was something intrinsic, it comes from me, from within. It's not because I couldn't take it anymore, it's not because of what people from outside tell me. It's something I've felt since my daughter was born."

Just weeks away from becoming a fully-fledged pro, up-and-coming British sprinter Noah Hobbs is raring to “get stuck into” life on the WorldTour.

The 21-year-old will join EF Education-EasyPost on a two-year deal from January, a formality he has known since the start of the season, but that was announced in August after a standout 2025 campaign; Hobbs won eight times in his final year as an under-23 rider, including a stage at the prestigious Tour de l’Avenir.

“Obviously I had no pressure, and I feel like that’s the best way to race, on instinct,” Hobbs told Cycling Weekly. “I did a lot of things I wanted to do in the under-23 season throughout the first and second year, so it’s quite nice in the third year to get it all right, and it all to come together.”

In an era of teenagers turning pro, the 21-year-old plied his trade the old-fashioned way, first spending two years with Groupama-FDJ’s development team, before joining EF Education-Aevolo for 2025. His standout moment from the year, he says, was April’s Tour de Bretagne, where he won almost half the stages. “To get a win, let alone three, was probably the highlight,” he smiled.

“I want to show myself as a sprinter, a guy who can win races. Having the opportunity to do that helps in the long term, instead of going to the WorldTour and not being ready, maybe slipping back a bit. It’s good to be able to know you can win.”

Sadly for the Brit, his season ended with a broken collarbone in late September, which ruled him out of the UCI Track World Championships. Hobbs returned to action at the London 3 Day earlier this month, where he raced with his younger brother, Henry, laughing that the Madison handslings were “probably not the best” for his injury.

Hobbs’s focus now is on continuing his winning streak into the pro ranks. “[I want to] get stuck in, really, show myself and prove to myself that obviously doing all this under-23 is carried over into the WorldTour, and that I’ve taken all that experience and actually used it,” he said.

“Obviously, there’s a bit of pressure on yourself, but if I can get stuck in there, get some top-threes – ideally, I want to win a race. That’s probably the goal.”

The Brit will join his WorldTour colleagues on a team camp in Girona later this month, where he will find out his race calendar for the season. He hopes to see Paris-Roubaix and the Vuelta a España on it.

This piece originally appeared in Cycling Weekly 534, published last Thursday, subscribe here.

Despite racing 80 days during the 2025 season – only 29 riders in the entire world raced more than him – and completing both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, British rider James Shaw is without a confirmed team for 2026 season.

For the past four years, climber domestique Shaw has raced for EF Education-EasyPost, joining the American team after three years riding for Continental and ProTour teams after his release from Lotto Soudal in 2018.

In his time with EF he has established himself as a reliable helper and someone capable of riding for his own results; he’s finished on the GC podium of two smaller races, and was fifth in a Pyrenean mountain stage of the 2023 Tour de France.

But Shaw, 29, finds himself in the unwanted position of not knowing what the future holds for him. EF haven’t told him that they definitely don’t want him for the 2026 season, but nor have they offered him a contract.

And time is running out, with most WorldTour teams now complete or having earmarked their final available slots for riders who might become available in the event of the likely merger between Lotto and Intermarché-Wanty.

“As of yet I’ve not received an official answer from EF so I am waiting to see what happens,” Shaw told Cycling Weekly. “A lot of people assumed I was staying and my agent and I remain hopeful. But a lot of teams filled up so potentially it was a mistake on my behalf.”

Shaw and his management team are now working to land him a spot on a team for the forthcoming season, in the event that EF do not have space for him. The Andorran-based rider believes he is more than capable of at least another couple of years in the WorldTour.

“I don't think my situation is due to a lack of results or performances. I feel like my results show that I perform well in those top races,” he said.

“I also think that the sport is going in the direction of quantity or quality: you see guys racing less and less but at a higher level and the toll of racing is getting more and more. For me to have the performances I have had and still had the quantity of race days was impressive I think.

“Unlike the top guys, I don’t have time to do an altitude camp or dieting, nor have the time to control the fatigue load. So I’m really content with what I’ve done and achieved this year. I’ve stood on the podium in a few races and had a good crack from the breakaway in a few stages of the Vuelta.”

Turning 30 next June, Shaw acknowledged that “I’m at an age now where I think if I go down to a ProTeam, I’m not sure anyone is ever bringing me back up to the WorldTour in my 30s.”

But he refuted some reports that he would retire if a suitable offer didn’t arrive. “I never said that and I am not contemplating nor considering retirement,” he insisted.

Instead, though not his first option, he is open and enthusiastic about the possibility of riding for a lower-ranked team. “I’d prefer to stay at EF as I’ve built a good relationship with the riders and the staff, but if I have to go somewhere else, maybe a change would be nice,” he said.

“Maybe riding for a ProTeam, being a slightly bigger fish in a smaller pond, and being given a free role to ride for myself every race would be good for me.

“You look at Tom Pidcock and he took a chance leaving Ineos [to join Q3.65] but it was probably the best thing that has ever happened to him. It might be nice to be in a team like that as it’s not always a step down.

“I have offers to go and race for lower-level ranked teams, and also reasonably nice offers to go and race in different parts of the world. But I still think that I can race and compete at the highest level and in Grand Tours and that I am deserving of that place.”

Rapha and EF Pro Cycling, the entity behind the WorldTour teams EF Education-Easypost and EF Education-Oatly, will part ways at the end of 2025.

The news was first reported by Escape Collective in July, but was announced publicly on Tuesday, and marks the end of a seven-year partnership between the brands. In that time, both the men’s and women’s teams have worn some of the most distinctive pro cycling kit designs in the modern era. It is understood Rapha made the decision to leave.

Rapha began supplying kit to EF in 2019 and set about “disrupting the status quo”, releasing a bold pink kit that would become the team’s signature colour.

“Rapha is leaving the WorldTour – for now,” the company’s CEO Fran Millar said, but vowed: “We will be back.”

“EF Pro Cycling has a unique spirit which we will always respect and champion. But we have made the decision to broaden our horizons and increase our impact across other, progressive areas of elite and participation cycling. This does not mark the end of our support for the world’s most talented and charismatic riders. The next chapter begins now.”

At each Giro d’Italia since 2020, Rapha produced switchout kits for the team so as to not clash with the leader’s jersey. Two of these involved collaborations with the clothing company Palace, which immediately sold out their limited edition runs, and saw jerseys listed for four times their retail price on eBay.

Rapha’s partnership with EF went beyond supplying kit. The brand also worked with the team on its ‘Gone Racing’ documentaries, a series of YouTube releases that starred the team’s riders in ‘alternative’ off-road events.

Lachlan Morton rose to popularity through the videos, which gained hundreds of thousands of views.

“This partnership has been nothing short of seismic over the last seven years, continually making waves in the peloton and bringing new fans to the WorldTour. It has been both transformational and truly original,” Millar said.

For EF boss Jonathan Vaughters, the wide reach of the alternative racing videos and the jersey collaborations showed “the hallmark of a successful partnership”.

“We made some noise, and brought new people into our sport along the way,” Vaughters said. “We wish Rapha all the best as they move onto new adventures. It’s an exciting time to be at EF Pro Cycling and we can’t wait to keep building on one of our most successful seasons to date.”

It is unknown at this stage which clothing brand will supply kit to EF’s men’s and women’s teams from 2026. Whichever brand takes on the baton will have the task of designing a rainbow jersey for Magdeleine Vallieres, the recently crowned women’s world champion.

To commemorate their partnership with EF, Rapha are releasing three limited edition jersey designs – one pink, one white and one black – which will be available online and in store from Friday 10 October. “These represent the last opportunity to own a Rapha EF Pro Cycling jersey,” the London-based brand said.

Richard Carapaz is to miss the Vuelta a España due to a "stop-start recovery" from the illness which prevented him from riding the Tour de France, it was announced on Tuesday.

The Ecuadorian will instead focus on Il Lombardia and the World Championships in Rwanda, EF Education-EasyPost revealed in a statement.

"After the illness I had, I had to stop several times as I couldn’t train for more than two or three days at a time,” Carapaz said. “Now in Ecuador, I’m trying to get back to normal with training and continue moving forward with what we had planned. I’m almost fully recovered now."

The 32-year-old finished third at the Giro d'Italia in May, winning a stage along the way, but has not raced since then. He is a stage winner at all three Grand Tours, including three at the Vuelta, arace he finished second at in 2020.

However, after a gastrointestinal infection took him out of the Tour, recovery from that has prevented him from taking to the start line in Turin on Saturday.

"Now, the next goals we’ve set are the Italian classics, especially Il Lombardia, and also the World Championships in Rwanda," Carapaz said. "It’s a very special World Championship for me, where I have a big opportunity, and I want to prepare for it the best way possible. That’s why I came to Ecuador: to do some altitude training, regain motivation, and focus 100 percent. Certain factors play in our favour, and we want to make the most of them."

The road race in Kigali features over 6,000 metres of altitude in 267.5km, and will be raced at altitude, with the Rwandan capital sitting 1,300m above sea level.

Carapaz, as a former Olympic road race champion, will be one of the favourites for the rainbow bands come the World Championships at the end of September.

The riders who will race for EF Education-EasyPost at the Vuelta are yet to be announced, but keep across all announced riders for the 80th edition of the race with our start list.

When Ben Healy arrives on the start line of any race with a waxed chain, an aero skin suit and a time trial helmet, you know he means business. Unfortunately for his breakaway compatriots on stage six of the Tour de France, the Irishman brought his typical breakaway A-game on Thursday. The result? A 40km solo victory in baking Vire Normandie.

The scene outside the EF Education-EasyPost bus as Healy crossed the line was one of jubilation. Cheers erupted from inside the air-conditioned confines as team staff spilled outside to welcome the return of sports directors Tom Southam and Charly Wegelius, two of the masterminds who helped set up their rider's move.

Healy was combative from the off on stage six, racing aggressively before he eventually made an attack stick. Sensing it was going to take a surprise move to escape solo, he launched a flyer from just before the 40km to go mark, which he then saw through to the line.

"The way that I look at it is really like it’s a mental game," he explained afterwards. "I try to push on the climbs and go easier on the descents – that then slowly draws out that elastic and lulls them into a false sense of security, I guess. I think that’s how I'm really able to tear out the gap.

"I don’t push the most power out of everyone but I just try and be as efficient as I possibly can. Today I had full TT tyres, a waxed chain, a TT skinsuit, road-ish helmet and just maximised absolutely everything."

Tudor Pro Cycling’s Michael Storer and Lidl-Trek's Quinn Simmons eventually took off in pursuit of the Irishman but the duo left it too late to reel him back in.

"It was a very, very strong group of riders and I didn’t believe in just attacking away purely by legs," Healy said of his winning move. "I was just waiting for a moment to try and find some speed and then catch them by surprise. That moment just came at around 40km to go on a twisty road and it was just perfect, perfect timing."

After he had taken flight, Healy’s advantage quickly shot up, eventually touching the two-minute mark. EF sports director Southam explained he got so excited by the move, he even began to consider the possibility of taking the yellow jersey, as well as the stage win.

"I spoke to the other DSs and they told me to shut the f*** up and try to win the stage," Southam laughed with reporters. "For us this is the biggest release of pressure we’ve ever had in a Tour. I've never stared down the barrel of a Tour with so few opportunities for teams that want to win the Tour, so I think it means we have an opportunity to do much more. We’re in the driving seat now and we’ve done it."

According to Southam, Healy immediately marked stage six "with an X" the moment the Tour route was released during the winter. The team then cooked up a plan to ensure their man could have his moment, which even involved driving part of the course early on Thursday morning pre-race in order to decide the exact moment that Healy would strike.

"Ben is very trusting when it comes to these things," Southam said. "There was a combination of things he needed and I found them, by hook or by crook. I knew once that race had taken shape, Ben had an advantage because of how resilient he is. But the credit goes to the rider every time as he has the idea and believes in it."

Another of EF's sports directors, Wegelius, said Healy's attack might inspire others to be more "cold-blooded" in races. When did he know his rider had won? "We're kind of old farts in the car, and we've been burnt a few times. It was literally when we saw his face on the big screen at the finish," Wegelius said.

The rest of the EF riders eventually arrived back at the bus, with staff jokingly asking what had taken them so long. A delighted Neilson Powless explained that the rest of the squad had waited at the finish line to see their team-mate on the podium, before riding back to celebrate.

Fellow EF rider, Michael Valgren, hailed Healy's ride as "out of this world".

"This means everything to us," Valgren told Cycling Weekly. "We planned it and we knew he had to go early, because this is what he can do, and he did. But you need the legs to finish it off, and he had them. It's amazing."

Two years ago, Jack Rootkin-Gray was spending the early weeks of his season riding the Perfs Pedal race and Lincoln Grand Prix for Saint Piran. The Londoner had gradually established himself as one of the best young male riders in the UK domestic circuit after leaving the British Cycling academy.

Two years on, after making the jump to WorldTour level with EF Education-EasyPost, the 22-year-old is getting set to make his debut at one of the sport’s most iconic races on Sunday alongside some of the biggest and most well known riders in the world.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly ahead of his first appearance at Paris-Roubaix, Rootkin-Gray admitted that he felt apprehensive ahead of it.

"I think it's hard to say," he said when asked what he is expecting to face once the race gets underway. "I've not even done junior or under-23 Roubaix, so, to be honest, it's the only race I'm a bit scared of. It's got quite a reputation, hasn't it, as being a really hard day out, and I'm sure it will be. I'm looking forward to it, it's going to be an experience. But I think it's important to be aware of what a brutal day it's going to be."

"I also think it's just the unknown," he continued. "I've not done a race like it. I've done every other type of race, but I just feel like this is something that I haven't experienced yet. I feel like it's different from every other race."

Rootkin-Gray was speaking to CW while travelling to northern France after completing the Région Pays de la Loire Tour. He explained that some helpful advice from EF DS Andreas Klier has now ensured he feels ready to take on Roubaix.

"He's just so knowledgeable about all of these races that you do feel like you have as best of an understanding as you can having not done it," he said. "He always says about what to expect, what to be ready for, and how to do the best job you can in terms of everything you need to do at a race like this."

"I don't really know why, but I just haven't felt myself for a little while," Rootkin-Gray said of his last year, which included the move to EF. "It's just the good feeling that I've had before, I haven't quite got it back yet. There's been a lot of change lately. Although I gave some thought to it, I didn't really appreciate how different it would be at this level, especially coming from not a development team, but coming from basically an amateur team [Saint Piran]. Compared to some other teams, it was quite different."

Fortunately for the 22-year-old, he explained that former teammates Alex Richardson, who formerly raced for Alpecin-Deceuninck, and Zeb Kyffin have kept in contact, enabling them to trade stories and share experiences of the professional level.

"I still speak to him [Richardson]," Rootkin-Gray said. "I think the best thing Alex is the most useful for is keeping the morale up. And just maybe trying to remind me to not take it too seriously, which I guess I have a bit of a tendency to do and to be a bit hard on myself. I speak to Zeb a lot too, we're really good friends. He also didn't have a very smooth transition to being professional with injuries, so there's a lot of stuff we can relate over."

Grand Tours and multi-day stage races are among the most physically demanding sporting events in the world. Riders push their bodies to the absolute limit, racing day after day across vast distances, burning thousands of calories in the process. To keep performing at their peak, these athletes follow a meticulously planned diet before, during and after each stage.

But their strategies aren't just for professionals—many of their nutrition habits can be adapted for anyone looking to optimize performance, whether you're a weekend warrior, an amateur racer or simply health-conscious.

We caught up with Kieran Creevy, the performance chef for the EF Pro Cycling men’s and women’s teams, to find out how he fuels these elite riders at a Grand Tour — and how you can apply some of their nutrition strategies to your own routine.

A day in the life of a performance chef

EF Pro Cycling's approach to fueling its athletes is highly structured. The program currently employs several travelling chefs and two nutritionists and will add two more nutrition experts in the coming year.

“Margins for performance gain in equipment are so small these days, so they’re looking to nutrition to make additional gains,” Creevy explains.

While some teams entrust the race hotels with their daily meals, most top-end teams, like EF Pro Cycling's men's and women's teams, travel with their own chefs and a mobile kitchen to have complete control over what goes into the riders' bodies.

Creevy and the other chefs will create the team’s menu a week to ten days in advance, in coordination with the nutritionists.

“I put it in an Excel spreadsheet and [the nutritionist] will look at it and make adjustments where needed like adding fats here or cutting fibre there,” Creevy said.

This means that when the race gets underway, the chef knows exactly what's on the schedule for each day, whether it's an eight-stage Tour de France Femmes or three-week-long Vuelta a España.

In addition to focusing heavily on macronutrients, the chef also needs to prepare meals in bulk. The caloric demands of a Grand Tour rider are immense. Creevy shared that on a typical race day, including breakfast, ride food, post-race recovery meals and dinner, riders consume around 4,000 - 5,000 calories. But on mountain stages, where the intensity is ramped up, that number can rise to 5,500 to 6,000 calories for women riders and up to 8,000 for male riders.

“That is quite a lot of food to take on. And bear in mind that some of the small riders, especially the women, are like 55 kilos or even less, so to try and take on that amount—it's pretty tough,” said Creevy.

In addition to the sheer quantity of food, Creevy shared that the biggest challenge riders face is the monotony of food.

“Riders on a long tour just get bored with the food,” Creevy said. “So instead of rice, rice, rice every day, we’ll trade out pureed potatoes or quinoa to give them options."

We caught up with Creevy at his mobile kitchen 7 a.m., at which time food prep was already in full swing.

Post-race smoothies whirred in the blender, chicken breasts browned in the oven, overnight oats chilled in the fridge, and Creevy was whipping up pancake batter as we spoke.

Creevy spends the early hours of the day prepping breakfast so a full spread of items awaits the riders as they come down to the hotel's dining room for breakfast. He'll also make omelettes or eggs for the riders who want them, one by one.

The morning prep also includes preparing on-the-bike foods like rice cakes, and post-race fuel, which is transported and dished up by the bus driver and soigneurs at the day's finish line. This may include smoothies for immediately after the race and a race-and-protein meal to be eaten on the bus during the transfer.

After all the riders have finished their breakfast, it's time to clean up, load up and transfer to that evening's hotel, where dinner prep commences. If he's lucky, there may be a small amount of downtime to watch the end of the race or get some exercise in.

Dinner will again be served buffet-style. That particular evening the menu consisted of a tomato sauce, spaghetti Aglio e Olio (no cheese!), grilled chicken, roasted zucchini and a fruit salad.

By the time clean-up is done, it will be quite late, so it's off to bed and getting ready to do it again the next day.

One day of meals

Breakfast:

The day typically begins with a carbohydrate-rich breakfast. Riders fuel up with overnight oats, pancakes, rice and/or rice pudding or rice cakes, and fresh berries. Eggs are also served, though riders limit their intake to avoid excess protein or fat.

On the bike:

While on the bike, riders consume energy gels, bars and carbohydrate drinks to maintain energy levels. The EF Pro Cycling teams are sponsored by Dutch nutrition company Amacx, which provides the team with an extensive range of on-the-bike products, allowing riders to consume as much as 90-120 grams of carbohydrates an hour.

Creevy also ensures riders have natural snacks like rice cakes. These are easy to digest, ensuring riders maintain peak performance throughout the stage.

Post-race refuelling:

After the race, recovery begins immediately. Riders take in a protein recovery drink or smoothie, which Creevy makes with very ripe fruits. “When fruit goes super ripe, the sugar content goes higher. It may not look nice, but it's totally edible. And the carbohydrate content is higher, which makes it actually better,” he said.

Within 30-40 minutes after finishing the stage, the riders also receive a simple meal of rice and lean protein to start replenishing glycogen stores.

Dinner:

Dinner is a well-balanced meal designed to refuel and repair the body. Creevy typically prepares two sources of carbohydrates, like pasta and rice, paired with a lean protein such as chicken or turkey, and roasted vegetables. There's also usually a salad or two.

Dessert:

Dessert is simple, like a fruit salad or apple cake — high in carbs, low in fats.

Carbs, Fibre and Fats

Cooking for the athletes is focused primarily on a macronutrient balance, which the team tracks using the Chromatic app, where the nutritionists and chefs also share and manage the teams' recipes. Without diving into the nitty gritty of each macronutrient, Creevy shared some of the basic guidelines:

Limiting Fiber:
Fibre intake is kept to a minimum for hard efforts because it can be difficult to process while riding at high intensity. According to Creevy, too much fibre can lead to gastrointestinal discomfort, and riders may have to “pull off to the side of the road, which isn't ideal.” Remember Tom Dumoulin's bathroom disaster during the 2017 Giro d'Italia? Yeah...

"Additionally, if you have extra fibre in your gut, it retains more water, so you hang on to water, rather than actually being hydrated quite as much. It also makes you a little bit heavier and a bit more bloated," Creevy explained.

On mountain stages, Creevy will even "strip the skin from cucumbers and stuff like that" to minimise fibre intake.

“On those days, [the riders] will pretty much just have white rice, plain pasta, pancakes, maybe some berries, and that's it. It’s quite restrictive,” Creevy shared.

Easy-to-digest Carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates are the foundation of a cyclist’s diet because they provide the quickest source of energy.

“Your body needs more time to process fat or protein and convert it into sugars, whereas carbohydrate is really, really rapid," Creevy explained. "All the carbs the riders consume are easy to process."

This means a lot of plain rice, plain pasta, oats and pancakes.

Limiting Fats:
Riders also limit their fat intake, especially while racing.

While fats are beneficial for lower-intensity exercise, they do more harm than good in high-intensity racing.

“In zone 4-5, it’s really hard for your body to start processing fats, so it just sits there in the stomach doing nothing,” Creevy explained.

As a result, riders rely on lean proteins like chicken instead of beef or pork, which contain more fat. On recovery days or the evening leading into a rest day, Creevy will add in salmon, which is rich in protein and healthy fats like omega 3.

Recipes

Creevy was kind enough to share two EF staples with our Cycling Weekly readers: the EF American Pancakes and EF Peruvian Chicken Thighs.

EF Education American Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 400 grams Tesco organic plain flour
• 3 tsp (13.8g) baking powder
• 2 tbsp (42.4g) honey
• 6 medium eggs
• 400 grams Alpro rice milk
• Creevy's personal touch: some lemon zest and a bit of lemon juice to change it up

Nutrition Facts

A serving size of 100 grams contains:

• 196 kcal
• 7.2g of protein
• 33.2g of net carbs
• 3.5g of fat

Method:

• Combine dry ingredients together in a big bowl
• Make a well, then add the wet ingredients. Stir to combine.
• Scoop the batter onto a hot griddle or pan.
• Cook for two to three minutes, then flip.
• Cook until brown on both sides.

EF Peruvian Chicken Thighs (to be served with rice and vegetables)

Ingredients:

• 1600 grams of chicken thighs, skin removed
• 10g low sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup (60g) fresh lime juice
• 4 tbsp (8g) of cumin powder
• 2 tsp (4.5g) of paprika powder
• 1 tsp (1g) of dried oregano leaves
• 1 tsp (2.3g) of ground black pepper

Nutritional Facts

A serving size of one chicken thigh (about 100 grams) contains:

• 180 kcal
• 26.1 grams of protein
• 0.6 grams of net carbs
• 7.4 grams of fat

Method

• Preheat your oven to 425°F (220°C)
• In a bowl, mix together the herbs, spices and liquids to make a marinade.
• Coat the chicken with the spice mixture on all sides. Let marinate for an hour.
• Place the chicken thighs on a rack on top of a baking sheet (to catch any drippings).
• Cook until the internal temperature reaches 165°F (74°C) — depending on the size of the chicken thighs, this will take about 25-30 minutes, but start checking around 20 minutes in.
• Creevy's pro tip: The meat will continue to cook for a few minutes as it rests on the counter, so take the chicken out of the oven the moment the internal temperature is reached and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
• Serve with rice and roasted vegetables or a salad.

More EF recipes:

• Healthy banana sourdough pancakes
• Lemon chia overnight oats
• Magnus Cort’s favourite cinnamon buns
• On-the-bike rice cakes
• Banana bread

With the Tour de France kicking off this Saturday in Florence Émilie-Romagne, American cycling fans are daring to whisper the question: “Will an American win a Tour de France stage this year?”

The last American to win a Tour de France stage was Coloradan Sepp Kuss who won stage 15 of the 2021 Tour de France, thereby ending a 10-year drought in which no  American rider ever made it to the finish line of a Tour stage first. 

Sadly, crowd-favourite “GC Kuss” is sidelined from this year's event due to a battle with COVID. However, an American stage winner is still  possible with California-native Neilson Powless (EF Education - EasyPost) on the hunt. 

"I really want to win a stage this year. I still haven't gotten one," the 27-year-old said. 

Neilson is one of just three Americans in the Tour with him,  Matteo Jorgenson (Visma - Lease A Bike) and Sean Quinn (EF Education - EasyPost) making up the American contingent. 

In 2023, Powless became the first American to wear the Polka Dot jersey, and he hung onto that jersey for 13 days.

The Polka Dot jersey signifies the rider who is currently leading the mountains classification. Points are awarded to those who reach the summit of each classified climb of the Tour de France first. The harder the climb, the more points offered.

For Powless’ fifth appearance at the Tour, his sights are set not on the climber's jersey but on stage victory. 

Despite a nagging knee injury preventing Powless from racing much so far this season, he did appear in good form at the USA Cycling National Road Championships where he helped teammate Sean Quinn take the road race title while Powless took home a bronze medal in both the road race and time trial championship. 

Heading to the Tour, Powless said he's got  “high ambitions and big goals.”

“I think this was probably the hardest year I’ve had yet with injuries and illnesses…[but] Nationals and the first half of the Dauphiné reassured me I’m back to a really high level [of fitness] after the rocky spring,” Powless said. “Winning a stage is my first and foremost goal [at the Tour de France], and I think I’ve got the fitness to do it.”

In 2022, Powless came close to a stage win. He was even within 13 seconds of the yellow jersey, so competing at the front of the peloton for a stage win isn't unknown territory for the Californian. 

And Powless won't be the only American with the potential of netting a stage win.

Jorgenson will help to fill in Kuss’ shoes at this year's Tour, serving as Jonas Vingegaard’s righthand man — a hefty job for the Idahoan's first Tour with the Visma-Lease a Bike team. 

Jorgenson has enjoyed quite some success with the Dutch squad already, winning Dwars Door Vlaanderen after an impressive solo ride, and becoming the third American ever to win Paris-Nice race this spring. 

For Americans who have long repressed their hopes of U.S. victories at the Tour since the days of he-who-must-not-be-named, we've got 21 exciting stages and three exciting riders to cheer for, beginning this weekend. 

EF Pro Cycling and Rapha have revealed their black "switch-out" kit for the Giro d'Italia and the Giro d'Italia Women.

The men's and women's teams, EF Education-EasyPost and EF Education-Cannondale, will wear the black kit with pink and yellow highlights at the Italian Grand Tour instead of their usual pink jersey, in order not to clash with the maglia rosa.

With the general classification leader wearing pink, EF's riders in recent years have taken to wearing a different colour to distinguish themselves. The men's Giro begins on Saturday, 4 May, in Turin. Read about the Giro route here.

There was no announcement or press release to accompany the kit launch, however, just a solitary Instagram post.

Rapha wrote: Since 2020 Rapha and EF Pro Cycling have taken to the stage at the Giro d’Italia in a series of switch-out kit designs. Because EF’s signature pink clashes with the Corsa Rosa’s very own leader’s jersey, the race organisers require the jersey to be distinguishable from the Maglia Rosa. This annual EF kit switch-out has become a beautiful tradition, announcing EF’s arrival at Europe’s most jaw-dropping grand tour.

"For EF’s Italian job the design for 2024 is a colour reversal with reworked graphic phrases in ‘Italian’ such as VAI, In Bocca al Lupo and PIZZA PASTA SCALA FASTA. We will be releasing both a special edition Pro Team Training Jersey with the same design as EF’s team issue jersey and Pro Team Aero Jersey with a minimal, abstracted version of the design for a more streamlined aesthetic."

In previous years, EF has worn a number of radically different jerseys at the Giro, including a 2020 effort in collaboration with skate brand Palace which saw the American team fined by cycling's governing body, the UCI.

In 2021 and 2022, the team wore jerseys with a black background but different highlight colours, as this year. Last year, the team wore a kit consisting of yellow, green, blue, orange and black, to highlight Rapha's new Excess program.

EF head to Italy with a squad aiming for stage wins, including Simon Carr, a recent winner at the Tour of the Alps, and former runner-up Esteban Chaves.

It's far from the first time a team have changed their kit for a Grand Tour; Jumbo-Visma (now Visma-Lease a Bike) have often changed their kit at the Tour de France to avoid clashes with the yellow jersey, while teams like Bora-Hansgrohe, dsm-firmenich PostNL, and Ineos Grenadiers have ridden in special edition kits for Grand Tours.

EF are not alone in changing kit for this year's Giro, too. Intermarché-Wanty are in a paler affair for the next three weeks, paying tribute to their Italian sponsor Vini Fantini.

"Keep pushing hard on the pedals." That was the mantra Simon Carr repeated to himself as he rode for 45km alone, through the cold air, and on to victory at the Tour of the Alps on Thursday. 

The Brit’s attack was a historic one, the longest ever to make it to the line at the Italo-Austrian race since it began in its current form in 2017. The previous best was 26.5km, achieved by… Simon Carr, on stage five last year. 

"I think the stages are quite similar," he said. "That's what sort of suits me: getting in the breakaway, getting away on the climbs and keeping the advantage to the finish. I think that’s really something I’m starting to specialise in a bit." 

Carr's latest victory came on the fourth stage of the five-day race – the queen stage – which counted almost 4,000m of elevation. 

Having been part of the early breakaway, the 25-year-old shook off his final companion, Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe), at the foot of the penultimate climb – the steep, 9.3km-long Passo del Vetriolo – and powered solo to the finish line. 

The plan, he said, was only hatched hours before. "For sure the DS's were discussing it last night, but we heard about it this morning on the bus," he said. "The whole team was going for the breakaway, or at least to try and get a couple of guys up there. We had myself and Hugh [Carthy] and that worked out perfectly."

Once Carr dispatched of Higuita, he faced 45 lonely kilometres. Snow fell in light specks, and all he could see was the grey tarmac of the road, tree-lined mountains either side. 

What was going through his mind? "On the flat, to just stay aero, and keep pushing hard on the pedals," he said. "My DS, Juan Manuel Garate, was breaking it down for me, like, 'You've got 7km flat, then you've got 1km uphill, then 500m flat, then another kilometre hard, and then downhill to the finish.'

"It was just little steps at the time. When I came into the valley, and there was a headwind, it would have been quite hard mentally, because I still had 20km to go. The help from the DS, and staying focused, was the key."

The Brit originally came to the Tour of the Alps with GC ambitions, but lost time on the opening stages, and started day four over 38 minutes in arrears. 

"I felt like I was the worst rider in the bunch for the first two days," he said. "I had some problems with allergies. It was actually really bad. I started to doubt quite a bit if my fitness was still there. But the team kept faith, saying that every stage was a new day, and to approach it with a new mind. That's what I did today, and luckily the legs were there." 

After the finish line, with the icy wind on his back, Carr threw his arms around his two soigneurs and pulled them in for a hug. It lasted only a handful of seconds, but felt like more than a simple congratulations. No, it was an I told you so, a proud team vindicated that their belief was well-placed, and solace for Carr, glad that he never gave up fighting. 

Rigoberto Urán has announced that he will retire at the end of the current season, after 19 years in the professional peloton. 

Urán’s current team, EF Education-EasyPost, made the announcement after the Tour Colombia, where the 37-year-old was starting his 2024 season. 

It had been reported that the Colombian was considering retirement and his team then confirmed that a decision was made and the current season would be his last in the sport. 

“As a cyclist, I believe the time has come to say: we have reached the end,” Urán said in a statement released by EF. 

“It has taken me a long time to come to this decision,” he added. “It is something I have thought long and hard about. The truth is that it is scary. Cycling has given me everything in life. 

“For almost 23 years, my aim was to get up, eat breakfast, and ride my bike. I was a part of a team that took me to the major races around the world. Now that is going to end.”

In a recent interview with Cyclingnews, Urán suggested that he feared the prospect of retirement but a decision has now been made. 

“It’s not easy, and a lot of people have struggled with it, not just in cycling but in every sport,” he explained to Cyclingnews at the Tour Colombia. “You often spend more nights in the year sharing a room with a teammate than with your wife. 

"It’s a life where you have lots of people doing everything for you. And when you finish, you don’t have that anymore.”

Throughout his long career, Urán has ridden for a variety of major teams including some of the very biggest in the WorldTour. He started out at Tenax-Salmilano in 2006 before going on to ride for Team Sky between 2011 and 2013. Urán then rode for Omega Pharma- Quick-Step before joining Cannondale, which later became EF Education, in 2016. 

Urán has claimed 14 professional victories to date which includes stage wins at all three of the Grand Tours. The Colombian narrowly missed out on overall Grand Tour victory on three occasions. He finished second twice at the Giro d’Italia in 2013 and 2014 and took second place at the 2017 Tour de France behind Chris Froome. 

Another notable moment for the Colombian was the 2012 London Olympics. Urán won a silver medal in the road race, which finished on the Mall, behind Kazakhstan's Alexander Vinokourov.

EF have not confirmed Urán’s final race although it is likely to be after the Olympics this summer. The Colombian said he would look to make the most of his final year racing. 

“I'm going to try to enjoy it, give my best in the races, and race every one like it is my last,” Urán said. “This season will be a thank you, a thank you very much. I only have gratitude for the team, for all the people, all the many coaches and many teammates who were always there to help me over the past 20-plus years.”

The Tour Down Under has been and gone in a blur and the racing season has well and truly kicked off for 2024. 

Hot on the back of all of the racing action in Oz was the Challenge Mallorca series. The likes of the Trofeo Calvià often fly under the radar once some of the bigger one-day affairs get going, but the early season races still provide plenty of exciting talking points.

The racing we’ve seen so far hasn’t disappointed from a British perspective, especially. We’ve seen young riders flourishing and others continuing to prove themselves which has resulted in plenty of wins so far. 

Many of the general classification heavy weights - the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar - are yet to enter the fray but despite their absence, the action has been memorable. 

Here are five things we learned from the opening round of WorldTour action. 

Groupama-FDJ and Willier seems to be the perfect match

French team Groupama-FDJ inked a new bike partnership deal with Italian brand Wilier Triestina last winter bringing an end to the team’s long standing association with home brand Lapierre. 

The new partnership has already got off to a superb start, with the team taking two solid wins in the space of just a few hours on opposite sides of the world. 

Kiwi rider Laurence Pithie took his first ever WorldTour win at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Australia and that was followed up just a few hours later by Kevin Geniets on home soil for the team. The Luxembourger triumphed in a two-up sprint with Alex Baudin (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) to win the GP La Marseillaise in southern France. 

Geniets win capped a remarkable 24 hours for Marc Madiot’s outfit. The team’s general manager will be keeping everything crossed that his riders can keep the hot streak going.

Celebrating early will always cost you

Celebrating early, whatever sport you’re taking part in, is rarely a good idea until you’ve seen the job through. 

Julian Alaphilippe is probably the most high profile example of that in cycling. The Frenchman, resplendent in his first world champion’s rainbow jersey, celebrated too early during the final sprint for the line at the 2020 Liège–Bastogne–Liège. 

Alaphilippe thought he had just edged out his rivals to the line, sat up to punch the air, and was then dramatically pipped to the post by Primož Roglič who stole the win from under his nose. 

Emil Herzog then suffered similar embarrassment last weekend in the Trofeo Palma race of the Challenge Mallorca. The Bora-Hansgrohe man launched what he thought was a late attack for the line and the subsequent victory, temporarily forgetting that there was still another lap of the course and roughly ten kilometres to go. 

Awkward indeed. 

Sarah Gigante is proof that you should never give up  

Forging a career in the top echelons of professional cycling can be brutal, just like it would be in most other sports. 

Riders can experience so many false starts or opportunities that don’t come to anything, or a minor injury or crash can suddenly see any hope of a career in the WorldTour go out of the window. A perfect example of that in the men’s peloton is James Shaw and Sarah Gigante’s story is a similar example within the women’s WorldTour. 

Widely considered the next big thing in Australian cycling, Gigante burst onto the scene in 2019, winning the elite women’s road race ahead of substantial competition including Amanda Spratt at just 19-years-old. 

After further success, a contract with Movistar soon followed. Unfortunately a series of injuries and health issues followed which, coupled with not being utilised in the best possible way by the Spanish squad, ultimately brought an end to her time on the team. 

Transferring to AG Insurance-Soudal was the answer. As we saw in Australia, that new environment and fresh opportunity to show what she could do ultimately breathed life back into the 23-year-olds promising career and that resulted in an impressive win at the Tour Down Under on Willunga Hill. 

Simon Carr continues to shine

EF Education-EasyPost’s Simon Carr continued to make a name for himself on hilly terrain with an impressive victory in the Trofeo Calvià. 

The British climber got the better of Aleksandr Vlasov and other solid competition to land the win in the opening race of the Challenge Mallorca. The most impressive aspect of his performance was that Carr was the first man to attack and the first man over the line to seal the sixth win of his career so far. 

Despite being out front since the very early stages of the 150 kilometre one day race, Carr still had enough gas left in the tank to outsprint Vlasov as the two riders tore into the finishing straight. 

Carr took his first GC stage race win last year, winning the Tour de Langkawi in south east Asia to wrap up a solid season. The 25-year-old also won a stage of the Tour of the Alps in the spring but missed out on riding any of the Grand Tours. 

If he continues his solid start to the campaign, Carr may well force his way into EF’s line up for one of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia or Vuelta a España in 2024. 

Stevie Williams is still one to watch

Israel-Premier Tech’s Stevie Williams is a man on the up and will enter the European calendar with a spring in his step, and rightly so. 

Due to circumstances beyond his control, Williams’ career was slightly stop start in the beginning but the 27-year-old has seemingly finally found his groove at his current team. 

The Welshman’s overall win at the Tour Down Under was a superb example of perseverance and solid race craft in order to land the overall title. 

Capping it off with a stage win in the leader’s jersey was the cherry on the cake and proof that Williams is certainly more than capable of going toe to toe with riders who on paper may seem his superior. 

Williams inked a contract extension with his squad late last year and impressed at the Tour of Britain for the Great Britain Cycling team in September. His form in Australia was a good indication of what’s still to come from the man from Aberystwyth later on in the season. 

Now that the musical chairs game of team rosters has ended and the pro teams have had a chance to get together during winter team camps, it's time for the big reveal of this season's kits and equipment. 

While some kits receive little fanfare, Rapha's creations always create a buzz –no matter which team they're outfitting. With the EF Pro Cycling teams, especially, Rapha's been bold and, at times, pushing the limits of what cycling kit can or should look like. Remember the duck-themed kits?! 

Rapha, in collaboration with EF Education-EasyPost and EF Education-Cannondale unveiled the 2024 team kits last week, adding yellow graphic elements to the title's sponsor's signature pink. Racing phrases like "TURN THE SCREW" and "UP UP UP" and an homage to the squad's favorite card game add a playful and personal touch. The jerseys are paired with black bibs and crisp white socks for a kit that again features plenty of panache.

"When you look good, you're already going fast. When you feel good, you're going even faster," Rapha says. 

And one rider digging the feel-good vibes is Coryn Labecki, who was given a special edition kit in addition to the team issue.

Labecki (née Rivera) won the U.S. National Criterium Championships last season, granting her the right to wear a stars-and-stripes edition of the EF Pro Cycling kit in any criterium race until she's unseated. 

In speaking with Cycling Weekly, Labecki rated the new kit an 11/10. With 73rd national titles to her name already (junior, collegiate and professional combined), Labecki could be considered a bit of an authority on the subject. The new kit, Labecki said, is the best she's had. 

We can't argue with that. It's just a shame we won't be seeing much of the kit as the five-foot-nothing "Pocket Rocket" spends most of her season racing in Europe, where criteriums aren't as prevalent as they are stateside. 

But the stars-and-stripes isn't the only national champion kit among the men's and women's EF Pro Cycling squads. There's Canadian national road racing champion and last year's Paris-Roubaix Femmes winner, Alison Jackson, rocking the bright red maple leaf jersey. 

Giro d'Italia stage winner and Irish champion Ben Healy gets to sport a very clean and crisp take on the Irish shamrock. And, similar but different, Esteban Chaves and Richard Carapaz are sporting the yellow-blue-red tricolor of Colombia and Ecuador, respectively. While Carapaz's tricolor is full-width, Chaves' tricolor is centered on an overall white jersey. 

These have got to be some of the best-looking national champion kits in the peloton. While these are hard-earned by their wearers, the team issue replica kit will be available for purchase from Rapha starting in February 2024. 

This article is part of Cycling Weekly's new 'the ride that changed me' series. Our writers hear from a range of professional and ex-professional cyclists about that one day on the bike that changed the trajectory of their career for good.

James Shaw once stole a road sign from the Tour de France long before he ever actually rode it.

That same sign ended up on the wall in his parent’s garage and served as a reminder of his biggest goal once he finally got a break in professional cycling. 

However, that initial break was short-lived and a Tour debut could quite easily have become nothing more than a pipe dream.

Shaw’s perseverance, resilience and dogged determination to keep his stop-start career going in the early days were what made it an eventual reality after facing multiple setbacks along the way which included being dropped by Lotto-Soudal.

Hailing from Derbyshire, Shaw tells Cycling Weekly that an early win in Belgium for the Haribo-Beacon team was a ride that changed him and led to doors into cycling initially beginning to open.

“For me, I think the one ride I look at and consider as a turning point and a point that other people noticed me was in 2014 when I won the junior Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne,” Shaw says. “At that point, I sort of went home and thought I could actually take this quite seriously.”

Reflecting on that biting day in Belgium, Shaw recalls a last minute panic regarding his equipment choices before the race got underway.

“I remember it being absolutely freezing,” he says. “For some reason I'd bought some big 28 millimetre tires or 25 mil tires for my bike in the old days of rim brakes and for some reason the tire didn't quite clear.

“All of a sudden it started doing that on the start line so I quickly swapped it for this shallow rim clincher 20 mil tire and I was thinking 'this is not good, this is a disaster', I still had my chunky tire in the rear.”

Despite the issue on the start line, Shaw still managed to keep himself in contention and eventually launched his race winning move.

“I was in the lead group with about three or four km to go,” he explains. “There was a cross headwind but I got away on my own, came around the last corner, crossed the line and got both hands in the air.

“At the time I didn't really realise quite what I was doing or what had happened… it wasn't expected at all really. We didn't really do much of a recce, I just remember it was bloody freezing when we got there but yeah, I went and won myself a Kuurne donkey.” 

“Off the back of that, the Lotto under 23 team manager got in touch,” he adds. “It was John Barclay that set up a meeting and that was the turning point where I thought ‘actually, you know what, a professional bike riding career might not be a daft thing to consider.’”

Shaw says that getting his hands in the air at the junior Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne helped him start to believe that kids from northern England could chance their arm in cycling, it wasn’t just open to his peers on the continent from France, Italy and Spain.

“At that point you've gone through your whole school career, and you're being told that you need your English exam and you need your maths exam, and you need to listen at school, because it will come in way more handy than ever riding a bike or kicking a football will,” Shaw explains. “So you're sort of apprehensive to the concept of it [a career in cycling] because so many other people around you have been.

“It's all you know, ‘if you make it you'll only ever make lower league football or lower league cycling’ almost like if you go to a normal comprehensive school and grow up in the north of England, you're not allowed to be bike riders, you know, they come from the French Alps, or the Italian Dolomites, or the Sierra Nevada of Spain or whatever.

“I actually sort of got to a point then where I realised this could actually be a serious turning point, obviously with Lotto U23 getting involved too.” 

A potential gap year in Belgium

“At that point, I think things started to turn,” he adds. “I think before that, a lot of my mates were having their gap year before university where they went to Thailand to do the whole stroke a doped up Tiger and it'd be a life changing experience.

"Instead I sort of considered the concept of maybe going and doing a year racing my bike before going to uni for my gap year as it was.

“I thought I'd go to Belgium and race and then in 10 years time, I could look at all the guys that are now professional, and be like I used to race with them. I only really considered the concept of being an amateur just to make stories for the grandkids really. But at that point going to a big development team like that, it was like well if you get the opportunity, you don't really want to waste it.

“So a lot of things started to turn then and started to look like a bit more of a clear pathway than before. I'd only really ever considered maybe riding for like the local bike shop or club team out there in Belgium or wherever I was going to go.

“That race really started to turn things around. It obviously changed my thinking around it [professional cycling] and bought a lot of opportunities and opened a few more doors.”

"Then I spent however many years it was getting good results and things before going professional."

All roads lead to France

Unfortunately for Shaw, disaster then struck when, despite getting good results, he was let go by Lotto as a young pro and could have easily found himself slipping further away from cycling.

Pick any elite level sport and if you dig deep enough you’ll find that it’s filled with stories of what might have been. Goals that could have been scored, wickets that could have been taken or Grand Tour debuts that could have been made.

Shaw is someone who simply doesn’t do what might have been and only deals in what did happen instead. Shaw was twice forced to Continental level and had his progress stalled by the pandemic before EF Education-EasyPost came calling.

He finally returned to cycling’s highest tier last year.

Ever the optimist, Shaw took the positives from his experiences and cites two other races worthy in their own right of inclusion in ‘the ride that changed me’ when he was racing in the colours or Ribble Weldtite.

Obviously I then had my trips back down to continental level. But then I guess it wasn't really till sort of like Norway or Slovenia in 2020, where EF raised an eyebrow and we had a few conversations, were talking about things and that came together.

Moving forward several years, the likeable northerner tells Cycling Weekly that his ‘big day out’ in the breakaway on stage six of this year's Tour was another moment in which he started to believe anything was possible if you graft hard enough for it.

“I guess really that stage six of the Tour this year was probably the other big turning point,” Shaw says. “I sort of said to myself afterwards 'Oh right! Let's see how far I can go with this!’ and in cycling really.

“I just want to get to the end of my career and be able to say I did everything and achieved my potential.”

Join us for the next instalment of 'the ride that changed me' in a fortnight's time.

Jack Rootkin-Gray has heaped praise on the team ethos and culture at Saint Piran and has said that it helped him earn a WorldTour move for next year.

American WorldTour giants EF Education-EasyPost recently announced that they had completed the signing of Rootkin-Gray meaning that the 20-year-old Brit will make his debut at cycling’s highest level in 2024.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Rootkin-Gray said the initial interest from EF arose at the start of the year after he won the Ringerike GP in Norway. A deal was then struck and signed off just before the recent World Championships in Glasgow.

Rootkin-Gray said: “There was some interest after I won the first UCI of the year in Norway, and then I did some physical testing with them [EF Education-EasyPost]. I then won another race and the move was all sorted pretty quickly just before the Worlds.

“I don't really know how much interest there was [from other teams]. That was the team that me and my agent thought would suit me the best. That was my number one choice so I went with that one as soon as I was offered the chance to.

“I think they've got a really quite refreshing attitude. Obviously, I think your priority is to be happy over anything really, I think that's the main precursor for performance. I'd quite like to have a bit of input into what I do and why we do things, rather than just being told. I quite like to maybe have a bit more input myself and that's something that they support. So that was a big attraction to me.”

Some under 23 riders may have sat back in the U23 road race in Glasgow, safe in the knowledge that a WorldTour deal was in the bag for the following season. Rootkin-Gray doesn’t fit into that category and rode his way to fourth place, narrowly missing out on a World Championships medal.

He told Cycling Weekly that the confidence instilled within him by Richard Pascoe, Steve Lampier and other staff at Saint Piran - his current team- helped him ride to fourth in Scotland.

“The culture within the team is really the thing that is the best about it by far,” he said. “Ricci [Pascoe] genuinely cares for all his riders, Steve [Lampier] is as excited about the race and the plan each day as much as you are, and all the staff just want the best for everyone like a family.

"I think that’s the thing I’ll take with me the most [to EF Education-EasyPost] how to create an environment with infectious positivity where everyone wants the best for one another. It’s really quite a force when you manage to start that."

“I think racing the way we've always raced at Saint Piran means you're confident and don't hold back,” he explained. “We always will go on the front foot and I think from whenever the first lap around that circuit was in Glasgow I was like ‘I want to be in the first break’ and I had no kind of concerns about doing that. So it does give you confidence to maybe go with a bit more of an ambitious plan.

“After the Worlds I just never really found my groove again. I just struggled with some illness and stuff. The Tour of Britain was really good fun racing the way we did. At the end of the week, I didn't really have the legs I hoped to have. But I'm really quite satisfied with the season. There’s lots to be happy with.”
 

Saint Piran have racked up an impressive set of results at domestic level this season which has included victories at the Lincoln GP, Lancaster GP and Beaumont Trophy. Zeb Kyffin also finished 6th overall at the recent Tour of Britain for the Cornwall-based team.

Alex Richardson took his second victory at Lincoln in May. Rootkin-Gray said that being part of the same setup as the 33-year-old former Alpecin-Deceuninck rider has provided valuable lessons for him to take to the WorldTour.

He said: “I think with Alex [Richardson], all of his knowledge and experience aside, the best thing I’ve learnt from him is how to create that positive environment for the group you’re in to benefit everyone. He’s definitely taught me a lot about being a leader.”

Looking ahead, Rootkin-Gray said that his main goals and objectives for his debut season with EF Education-EasyPost were straightforward.

“It’s just to be motivated, to be part of the group and build a network within the team and ultimately to always race for the win because I love winning.”

James Shaw is high on confidence after rubbing shoulders with some of the best riders in the world at the Tour de France.

Shaw was part of a breakaway stacked full of talent - including Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) - on stage six in the Pyrenees which was won by Tadej Pogačar.

The British rider was in the thick of the action on both the Col d’Aspin and Col du Tourmalet and felt he was one of the strongest riders in the group.

Speaking to the media in Mont-de-Marsan prior to stage six, Shaw said he now felt like other riders would be more aware of him in the Tour peloton.

“Yeah, it was good. It was a big day out,” Shaw said. “I think, big in terms of physically demanding, but big in terms of, like a stepping stone day in the Tour. I sort of feel like now I know and understand where I'm at with my form and my condition and stuff. I'm going to look forward to a few more days like that to come in the second and third week.

“Now I think people will be looking out for me a bit more as well going into those later stages and yeah, there's quite a few more mountain days to go.”

The British rider had the perfect view of the duel between Jonas Vingegaard and Pogačar, and joked that it made for good photos for him to look back on.

“I mean as far as seeing it live goes, it was a front row seat,” he added. “Sitting behind potentially the two greatest Grand Tour riders of this generation got some good Instagram pictures as well, so all good.”

Reflecting back on his performance, Shaw explained that he felt he was one of the stronger riders of the group on the day, something which he said was notable as they raced towards Cauterets-Cambasque.

He said: “I certainly felt like I was one of the stronger riders of that group and come the finish it can go either way. So, yeah, I'm confident in my ability to try and push for that.

“It’s a funny one, really, because I expected to be given a bit more time. I didn't expect anyone to come across the gap. Then at that point, yes, it's free reign for the breakaway isn't it, to fight it out. "

Before arriving in Bilbao for the start of the Tour last week, Shaw explained that the French Grand Tour had never been ‘part of the plan’ for him this year. Now after impressing in the Pyrenees, the 27-year-old’s value as a rider will have undoubtedly risen.

When asked as to how his performance will affect future contract negotiations, Shaw was coy on his current situation with EF Education-EasyPost and what his Tour performance may or may not mean for that.

“Yes, certainly your stock value goes up a bit there,” he said. 

Looking ahead to the final two weeks of racing, the British rider explained that he hadn’t ruled out getting up the road on another occasion as he goes in search of a potential stage victory.

“More in the mountains you know, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 all look good,” he added. “You obviously can't go for all of them, you've got to pick your ones and I think often it's maybe the case of you sit on the start line and you go right okay, who's here sort of thing and go okay, maybe I'll call it a day or right, this is the one but it's not always that clear unfortunately.”

EF Education-EasyPost’s James Shaw has said that when his team was drawing up plans during the winter for the 2023 season, riding the Tour de France was never part of the plan for him. 

The 27-year-old British rider initially expected to be aiming towards goals later in the season which included riding the Vuelta a España. However, due to various different scenarios playing out, Shaw now finds himself in the Basque Country getting set for a maiden Tour outing in Bilbao on 1 July. 

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Shaw explained that he feels he’s put in some solid work in training to earn a place in EF’s Tour squad and that he feels he finished the recent Critérium du Dauphiné in the best physical condition that he’s ever been in. 

“This was never the plan when we sat down in December in team camp for me to aim to ride the Tour de France,” Shaw said. “The Classics was not the Classics campaign I wanted, then I got Covid straight after it. Then I spent some time away at altitude and I think I came back from the Dauphiné in probably the best shape I’ve ever been in.

“If anything the Vuelta was the plan, so a pretty similar sort of thing to last year.”

Prior to becoming a professional bike rider, Shaw told CW that one of his earliest memories of the French Grand Tour was as an 11-year-old fan on the roadside when the Tour visited the UK in 2007. 

“I went to watch the Tour once when it came to London in 2007,” he explained. “So I would have been 11 and it was the first time I went to watch it. I went with Dad and a couple of his mates. We watched the prologue on the first day, then stood on the side of the road and watched stage one. 

“If I remember rightly, David Millar went on a big solo attack,” Shaw added. “That was my first experience of watching the Tour. I remember watching and thinking ‘one day’ when I was just a young bike rider then.”

When it comes to souvenirs from the race, a lot of roadside fans try to grab something from the Tour’s caravane or if they’re lucky, a bidon from their favourite riders as the peloton rushes past. Although 11-year-old Shaw decided to go for a far larger prize.

“I actually stole a road sign! I stole one of the big ‘this road will be closed on such and such dates for the Tour de France’ signs and it’s now on the wall in my parents garage,” he said. 

“It was actually on my bedroom wall until I was about 16 or 17. It’s this great big yellow thing and it's still up on the wall there in the garage.

“I can actually remember trying to cut it off this pole and cut the cable ties with dad’s car keys. I was up on his shoulders just cutting away and yanking at these cable ties.”

Shaw joked that despite a few suspicious looks from roadside stewards, he still managed to sneak the sign home.

“Of course the race had gone through at that point and this was on the way home. I don’t know why I tried to hide this massive yellow sign as it wasn’t the sort of thing that was easy to hide,” he explained. “I remember being a bit nervous and trying to hide it behind me, it probably looked really dodgy.” 

As the years progressed and Shaw turned professional, the now 27-year-old hit a few brick walls on the way to his debut in the French Grand Tour. 

After being dropped by Lotto in 2018, Shaw spent several years on the UK domestic scene with continental outfits including Swift Carbon Pro Cycling and Ribble Weldtite before returning to the WorldTour at the start of the 2022 season with EF. 

Shaw told CW that he was fortunate to have a close inner circle of family and friends that kept him motivated during several difficult periods. 

“I think a lot of the time it was the other people around me that kept me going,” he said. “There were times when I’d written myself off… but other people around me were like ‘no, you can’t stop, you’re too young to stop, you’ve got to keep going’ and helped me push on and continue really.”

Many of us may never be as fast a Giro d’Italia rider, but here’s a chance to look like one. 

Bicycle manufacturer Cannondale has partnered with the Los Angeles Bike Academy to raffle off Jonathan Caicedo's race bike from the 2021 Giro d'Italia. 

The bike is a custom-painted limited edition Giro d'Italia Cannondale SuperSix Evo in the EF Education-EasyPost team colors. The 48cm-bike features a full Dura Ace DI2 groupset with Hollowgram cranks, 53/39T chainrings and a 11-30T rear cassette. The cockpit consists of a Vision Metron 5D Integrated carbon handlebar with Prologo bar tape. And the 40mm deep carbon Vision Metron wheels are wrapped in Vittoria Corsa tubeless ready tires. 

The Los Angeles Bike Academy (L.A.B.A.) is a youth cycling team and bicycle education program with a mission to empower, educate and develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills in youth. The L.A.B.A. focuses on helping underserved communities where opportunities and access to cycling are much more limited.

The L.A.B.A runs a full-service bike repair shop to help fund their program. They use the shop to teach young cyclists mechanical skills and create a hub for youth cycling and community. Kids 10-18 can participate in the L.A.B.A and in their earn a bike program. In this program, they learn all the mechanical knowledge on how to strip down and rebuild a bicycle, and at the completion of the program, they get to keep the bike they built along with a helmet and bike lock.

Cannondale has donated this limited-edition Giro d'Italia team bike to the L.A.B.A. to help support the program. The bike will be raffled off, here, and you can buy entries for $25 USD, with all proceeds going to support developing cycling in underserved communities. 

The raffle will be open from June 6th till June 27th, when a winner will be randomly selected. While donations are accepted worldwide, the raffle is only open to U.S. residents. 

On an early summer’s evening in Monaco, Michael Valgren is bursting with optimism and positivity. After a long absence due to serious injury, the Danish rider is finally making a cautious return to training and competitive racing.

Following a serious crash last June at the Route d’Occitanie, Valgren spent several days in a hospital bed as he recovered from surgery, contemplating his future in the sport. He was also moved from EF Education-EasyPost's senior team to the EF Education-NIPPO development squad as he began his recovery.

Nearly ten months later - thanks to an extensive rehabilitation programme - the Danish rider pinned on race numbers once more at April’s Region Pays de la Loire Tour, and is making solid progress on the long road back to the top.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly from the south of France, Valgren explained how much of a relief it was to be able to experience the buzz and excitement of a competitive race day with his teammates once more.

“When you take a step away from cycling and you’re not part of it, you really find out how much you miss it,” Valgren says. “It’s not even just the racing part, but it’s being away at a race, all the gossip and banter with your teammates. I really missed being a part of that lately.”

Valgren’s heavy crash on stage three of the 2022 Route d’Occitanie left him with a list of horrendous injuries. This included a fractured pelvis, dislocated hip, damage to his ACL and MCL ligaments in his knee as well as a shattered meniscus.

He underwent surgery in Nice to repair the damage to his hip and knee and says that in the immediate aftermath of the crash, he was extremely doubtful that a potential comeback was on the cards whatsoever.  

Comeback in doubt

“Honestly it was just like a double blow,” he says. “First of all the crash was obviously not ideal with the injuries I had and the outcome of that. Then I had to miss the Tour start in Denmark, something we’ll probably never experience again."

"It was like not just one knife but two knives stabbed into me at the same time, it was a really horrible moment and experience to go through to be honest. At the start it was just completely miserable, I felt like there was nothing good to take away from it. Okay, I could maybe come back but I really wasn’t sure.”

“I was just in so much pain for the first month of it all,” he adds. “I spent two weeks in the hospital before I got home. I stayed for three nights in Carcassonne and then ten days in Nice where I had my surgery before I then got back to Monaco."

Valgren says that he has now fully digested all of the emotions that came with nearly being forced to give up something he holds so dear.

“In the first place I thought right, I’m going to get back quick,” he says. "I had an initial prognosis of maybe three months so I thought okay, that’s the rest of this season gone. I’ll work during the off season and get back ready for this year. As time moved on things just weren’t getting better. Two months went past, then three and it was around September when I really started to doubt I could come back.”

It was when the future of his cycling career seemed in question at the end of 2022 that things became difficult. “That’s when I cracked the first time, I just started to cry and said to myself I’m not ready to stop, it’s not how I want to stop, I want to stop when I feel like I don’t want to continue, not like this.”

Fighting back

“I just thought I’m not giving up so easily, I’m going to fight back and try and come back… I always kept believing, even though for the first six months I couldn’t do a pedal stroke,” Valgren continues. 

“My knee was just not working with me. My hip was fine, just my knee wouldn’t cooperate. I only had about 100 degrees of bending when I think you need 150 to do a pedal stroke. I just couldn’t though, it was so painful for me.”

A second knee operation would soon follow that would eventually enable the Dane to start to ride pain free. His first ride without discomfort came in December, a much welcome Christmas gift after many months of hard work and struggle.

“It’s an old saying but what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger,” he explains. “That 100% applies in this situation. I had to work way harder to get back to normal than what I did just to be a bike rider. I always tried to think ‘ok, I’ve suffered a lot more than I am now’ when I was starting back on the bike.”

Back in the game

Highlighting his friends and family, teammates and physios, the Dane says he was lucky to be able to count on the support and encouragement from those closest to him.

“Throughout this bad moment I’ve had really good people behind me and I can only thank them for where I am today. It could have been a s****how, I could have sunk into depression or something like that, but I never went down that deep hole and that was thanks to those around me that’s for sure.”

Now with several race days ticked off, Valgren says he was pleased with the feeling in his legs at the recent Tour of Norway, but stresses the importance of continuing to take it slowly.

“It was only really March when I was able to train like I normally would have done before I had my first race… I had to remember to be realistic in that race with what I could achieve. I couldn’t expect to win the first one, but I was in the game, I was part of it and not just a passenger which was super nice. Then the same thing happened again at the Tour of Norway.”

Sky is the limit

As well as being motivated by his own steady progress, Valgren explains that he has been inspired during his comeback by two training rides with a former winner of Paris-Roubaix as he builds for further races in the coming weeks.

“Lizzie [Deignan] and I often see each other at the playground with our kids,” he says. “We went out on the bike two days in a row, the first was absolutely pouring down… We’ve both been through the same with making a comeback after a long time away. 

“Lizzie just came back from her pregnancy, her second race was Ride London and she was amazing. It’s so nice to see that a fellow cyclist can be out for so long, but then can come back and be right at the top.”

“It’s people like her and people like Remco [Evenepoel] who had a bad crash that I can kind of look up to and say well if they can do it, I can do it too you know. The sky is only the limit for me.”

It has been a long time coming. After two years and four months racing in the pink of EF Education-EasyPost, Simon Carr took his first victory for the American squad on Friday at the Tour of the Alps.

The 24-year old took his win after spending 82km in the breakaway on a rain-affected stage five to Brunico, in northeast Italy. It is the second win of his career, after victory at the Prueba Villafranca-Ordiziako Klasika while riding for Nippo Delko One Provence back in 2020.

After being cruelly caught by the peloton on stage two this week, the climber, born in Hereford but raised in Occitanie in the South of France, explained his huge sense of relief at grabbing his second-ever professional win. 

“It was a really tough day today,” Carr said. “Also it’s been a while since my first win, so not just today, but there’s been a lot of races where I’ve been trying to get there. When you finally succeed, then it's such a nice moment.”

Carr has often come alive in the mountains. When he launched a solo move out of the day's breakaway on the tough Mühlbach climb, he showed no signs of being affected by the injuries and illness that hampered his last two years of racing.

“I think any win is really important, I had a good start with this team in 2021, and last year wasn’t so good with illness and injury,” he added. “I’ve been coming back strong this year, and already in the Volta a Catalunya, and then a month ago I was feeling good in a few breakaways, so then there were a good few opportunities, I just wanted to seize those and of course, it has now paid off.”

The EF Education-EasyPost rider will not be riding the Giro d’Italia in support of Hugh Carthy, and will also skip the Tour de France, but is on the cards to head to the Vuelta a España in August. Instead, he will be looking to build on this momentum at smaller races.

“I’ve done two Giro’s in the past, I think for me this year it was more important to focus on some non-WorldTour races and try and get some wins in those,” he said. “That was the goal. So hopefully not going to the Giro will mean I have more opportunities to win again.”

“The next goal for me is the Route d’Occitanie. It’s where I grew up, so I really want to do well there and maybe test my GC legs.”

Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) cut a lonely figure as he crossed the finish line and searched for his soigneurs on day two of the Tour of the Alps.

After spending a large part of the 165 kilometre long stage two in a three-man breakaway, Carr would then go at it alone on the final climb, only to be caught as the summit neared by a rampaging Ineos mountain train.

Carr would ultimately finish 59th, more than nine minutes behind the stage winner Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers).

Speaking to the media on the concrete of the Ritten Arena, Carr explained that he ultimately was made to suffer for his early efforts at the start of the stage when the final climb eventually arrived. 

“We never had much of a gap all day. I used quite a lot of energy at the start as there was just the two of us,” he said. “I think I paid for that in the final. I was still feeling good, but then the final part was really hard. Particularly with the descents as well, it kind of breaks your rhythm a bit. I was suffering there.”

After growing up in the south of France, Carr has regularly shown that he's more than at home in the high mountains as he did this afternoon in Italy.

“I was definitely the strongest guy in the breakaway, then it was just a question of trying to get the most out of it, and get everyone pulling well… on the climb I ended up going solo, and from there I was just all in, it was a super hard day.”

After Carr's teammate and fellow Briton Hugh Carthy launched an unsuccessful attack in the closing moments of stage one, it was a second aggressive day for the EF Education-EasyPost team. Carr highlighted Carthy’s position, as well as that of Jefferson Cepeda in the general classification, and promised more edge of your seat, attacking racing from his team. 

“I think we’ve still got two guys close on the GC… We can get some opportunities as well in the breakaways, as the race progresses they’ll be more likely to succeed, so that’s the goal for the rest of the week,” Carr added.

After stage two, Carthy sits  third behind current race leader and stage winner Geoghegan Hart at 22 seconds. Cepeda is ninth, 40 seconds from the lead.

“I think we’ve got a really strong team this year, and had some success. That’s motivating,” he said. “On a personal level I haven’t actually won for like two years, so I’m really motivated to win again. I’ve been close on a few occasions with breakaways, but at the end of the day it’s often the bunch that decides the gap.”

Former professional cyclist Mitch Docker has backed Richard Carapaz for a high general classification finish at the Tour de France this July, after moving to EF Education-EasyPost for 2023.

Carapaz, a former winner of the Giro d’Italia, achieved three Grand Tour podium finishes with Ineos Grenadiers from 2020 to 2022, including his second place behind Jai Hindley at last year’s Giro. However, the Ecuadorian was unable to land a Grand Tour victory with his former team.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Docker explained that the strong culture at his former team combined with a favourable course could see Carapaz climb on to the podium once more at the Tour this July.

“If the course suits him [Carapaz], then yeah, why not,” Docker said. 

"I’ve heard from inside the team that Carapaz arrived at the first training camp and was super relaxed. Apparently he was feeling at home already. Especially with Rigo [Rigoberto Uran] there, they’ve got a real South American feel and with Amador arriving as well. So there will be a strong team around him.”

“I wouldn’t doubt that the team has an amazing Tour this year purely because of the culture they’ve created. They’ve also got the legs behind that and the engines too which helps,” he added. 

“It’s a real credit to Jonathan Vaughters as this was something he put together. He always sees the right characters that fit and builds the team and everything around that.”

'IT WAS JUST BUCKET LIST STUFF'

Away from the road, Docker has recently collaborated with Belgian cyclo-cross legend Sven Nys to produce a new film which sees the Australian tackle cyclo-cross for the first time. In the film, called “There will be Mud”, Docker receives expert advice and coaching from Nys as he heads to Belgium to take part in his first race.

Docker told Cycling Weekly that working with Nys was an eye-opening experience and “bucket list stuff” for any cyclo-cross fan.

“We kind of knew each other already, so I wasn’t star-struck or anything. Although once we started doing some sessions together, I soon realised that what I was doing was what any person who watches CX would love to be doing.” he said. “It was just like bucket list stuff.”

“Sven just fully accepted me, so it was like the equivalent of working with someone like Chris Froome. Someone who has been at the top tier of their sport for so long. He was just so down to earth as were all the other guys and girls that I met.”

“It was a very welcoming environment. Just like other experiences I’ve had outside of the road scene in mountain biking and gravel,” he added. “The road scene is very special. Although it can also be viewed as quite cliquey and snobby. Once you’re in, you’re in kind of thing, but cross was so different to that.”

There Will Be Mud is available exclusively on GCN+ and can be watched via the GCN+ App, all web browsers, and smart TVs. A subscription includes access to more than 150 original and exclusive full-length documentaries, as well as live and on demand racing coverage, analysis and highlights.
 

Cycling brand Rapha is redesigning Richard Carapaz's Olympic champion kit for the 2023 season, Cycling Weekly understands. 

As a result, the Ecuadorian is expected to wear a different, although similar, EF Education-EasyPost jersey to the one previously produced for him and released last week. 

On Monday, Cycling Weekly questioned whether the initially released jersey was compliant with UCI specifications. According to the governing body's Jersey Visual Guidelines, the Olympic champion’s jersey must bear a specific gold-coloured piping, which was not present on Carapaz's original kit. 

The UCI document outlines that this gold piping “must seamlessly go around the sleeves and collar” of the jersey. In both instances, the height of the piping may differ, with the sleeves set at a height of 5cm and the collar allowed to a maximum of 5cm. 

Carapaz’s jersey, which appeared non-compliant with these rules, displayed subtle gold accents, including gold text on the shorts, rather than white, and a gold Rapha logo on the armband. 

It is uncertain what the Olympic champion's new kit will look like, although it is expected to be similar to the current design but with the addition of the necessary gold piping.

According to the UCI’s jersey regulations, all proportions and dimensions set out by the governing body must be respected. Likewise, teams must seek approval from the UCI before production. 

Teams who do not follow the jersey specifications and approval process may be subject to fines.

Since Carapaz's kit was never worn in competition, it is highly unlikely that his team will be penalised.

In 2020, EF received a fine of 4,500 Swiss France (£3,700) for “non-compliant clothing” at the Giro d’Italia team presentation, where the riders turned up in special edition Palace duck jerseys. 

“Oh UCI Cycling… you guys are always looking out for the best interest of the sport, aren’t ya?” Team manager Jonathan Vaughters tweeted at the time. “Thanks for the $4000 of fines for wearing our crazy ducks. Hope David Lappartient [UCI President] enjoys his dinner - on us! Salud!”

The squad's 2021 jerseys kept all the blueprint sketch marks as part of their design, in part, as a nod to the infringement.

Rapha declined to comment on Carapaz's jersey redesign. Cycling Weekly approached both EF and the UCI for comment earlier this week but has yet to hear back.

When EF Education-EasyPost released their 2023 kit, the American team shared a separate statement regarding Richard Carapaz’s design. “A kit fit for the Olympic champ,” the team wrote. “The gold accents on his jersey and shorts are subtle.”

The design, produced by cycling brand Rapha, will see Olympic road champion Carapaz wear an almost identical kit to the rest of the squad. The only difference is that the text on the Ecuadorian’s bib shorts is gold, rather than white, as is the Rapha logo on his armband. 

As EF highlight, the motifs are subtle. But might they be too subtle for the UCI’s jersey regulations?

According to the UCI's Jerseys Visual Guidelines, which stipulate the placement of logos and special bands on team kit, there are strict rules surrounding the piping on the Olympic champion’s jersey. 

The document outlines that a specific shade of gold-coloured piping “must seamlessly go around the sleeves and collar” of the jersey. In both instances, the height of the gold piping may differ, with the collar allowed to a maximum height of 5cm and the sleeves set to 5cm. 

Carapaz's kit has no such gold piping.

The UCI also instructs designers to “apply a 30mm minimum distance between each integration on the jersey,” be that sponsors’ logos, gold piping or a rider’s name.

“The proportions and dimensions indicated are in accordance with the UCI Regulations and must therefore be respected,” the governing body writes. “All jerseys/skinsuits must be approved by the UCI before production.” 

Riding for Ineos Grenadiers last season, the Ecuadorian’s jersey generally adhered to the above UCI rules. Similar designs can also be seen in jerseys worn by the previous Olympic road champion Greg van Avermaet, who won gold in Rio in 2016, and the current time trial champion Primož Roglič.  

According to the UCI's guidelines, teams who do not follow the jersey specifications and approval process may be subject to fines. In 2020, EF were fined 4,500 Swiss Francs (£3,700) for "non-compliant clothing" at the Giro d'Italia team presentation, where the riders wore special edition Palace duck jerseys.

Both EF Education-EasyPost and the UCI were approached for comment by Cycling Weekly last Friday, but neither have yet responded.

EF Education-EasyPost rider Lachlan Morton will attempt to break the around the world record at some point in the next few years, his team manager Jonathan Vaughters has revealed. 

The current world record is 78 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes, held since 2017 by long-distance cyclist Mark Beaumont.

Speaking exclusively to Cycling Weekly, Vaughters said that Morton had initially hoped to undertake the challenge in 2023, but has had to delay his plans.

“What we wanted to do was to try the around the world record [in the second half of 2023], but the sticking point on that right now is Russia,” Vaughters said. 

“We don’t think that’s going to be possible next year, so we’re trying to come up with a plan B right now,” he added. “What that is, we’re not sure yet.”

When asked if Morton was eager to try and break the record, Vaughters said: “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. Very keen. It’s just that I don’t think it’s going to happen in 2023.” 

In a text exchange with Cycling Weekly, Morton confirmed that he has spoken about the challenge with his team, but there is "nothing concrete" at the moment. 

To constitute an official attempt, the 30-year-old will have to ride a distance of 29,000km (18,000 miles) continuously in one direction. Brit Beaumont rode an average of 240 miles a day and later described his trip as “the longest two and a half months of my life”. 

Morton began shifting his focus to off-road events in 2019, when he took on Unbound Gravel, Leadville 100, GBDuro and the Three Peaks Cyclocross race. 

This season, the EF Education-EasyPost rider competed in just one road race, the four-day Gran Camiño held in the northern Spanish region of Galicia. According to Vaughters, the Australian is unlikely to return to the road in 2023. 

“He won’t be doing any road races, really,” Vaughters said. “In the early part of the year he wants to get away from doing real ultra events and kind of focus on trying to win in gravel.

“He has lost a lot of his explosive power from doing these massive 4,000km events. So he’s training a little bit more in an explosive manner.” 

Last month, Morton joined a host of WorldTour riders including Peter Sagan and Mathieu van der Poel on the startline at the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships. The Australian finished 18th on the day, six and half minutes down on the winner, Alpecin Deceuninck’s Gianni Vermeersch. 

Speaking last November about his alternative race calendar, Morton said: “At these races, you’re relying on yourself and you don’t really know what kind of a challenge you’re going to come up against. That’s a cool feeling to have. That’s what attracts me to these kinds of adventures."

EF Education-Easypost manager Jonathan Vaughters has said he will not miss the “absurd” way his team had to race to survive a WorldTour relegation battle this season. 

In many UCI-sanctioned races, having multiple high-finishing riders gives a higher points haul than winning outright. This proved a lucrative strategy for teams facing relegation in the latter half of this season.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Vaughters said: “Next season we can concentrate on racing to race as opposed to ‘well it’d be great if we had three guys in the top 10’. I mean, that’s like the dumbest. I hated racing like that.

“In September, I was like ‘oh my god, we got second, sixth and ninth’,” he added. “You couldn’t totally sacrifice any one person to get the race win, because we needed all three guys to score [UCI points].

He added: “It’s a really absurd way of racing and super annoying for everyone in the organisation to race like that when you’re just trying to sort of stack up a bunch of guys in the top 20."

“It is what it is, but I will look forward to not racing like that."

EF Education-EasyPost's need to get involved in that relegation fight in 2022 stemmed in part from a large number of illness setbacks mid-season. By the middle of March, the team had 19 out of 30 riders either out with Covid-19 or another illness. 

“In March and April, there’s so many one-day races of very high level,” Vaughters said, “and we just zeroed out on all of them. And it was amazing how fast the ass dropped out.”

The team quickly got drawn into a relegation scrap alongside Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech, both of whom are set to lose their WorldTour licences. In pursuit of UCI points, all threatened teams took on extra race days, with EF Education-EasyPost competing in 74 events in 2022, compared to around 60 pre-pandemic. 

Going into the next three-year relegation cycle, Vaughters plans to keep up the busier program. 

“The idea will be to send riders to some of those races that we normally might not have done, but are suited to us,” he said, “like a Tour of Norway or a Milano-Torino.

“We’re not going to chase around races in Belgium and France that, quite frankly, we just never recruited for.” 

Did the team consider bringing in a sprinter for the flatter one-day races? “No,” Vaughters replied. “We recruited Richard Carapaz.”

“He’s a very versatile rider,” the team manager added. “He can win one-day races, he’s the Olympic champion, he can win stages at Grand Tours. He showed that in the Vuelta in a pretty spectacular form last year [with] three stages. He can win climber’s jerseys, king of the mountain competitions.”

When asked about Carapaz’s GC chances at next year’s Tour de France, Vaughters said: “The route is very suited to his characteristics as a rider. He’s an aggressive rider, an attacking rider. Time trialling is a little bit of his Achilles heel, so it’s a Tour route that’s very suited to him.

“But I’m a long way from pounding my fist on the table and saying ‘we’re going to go out and beat Jumbo Visma and [Jonas] Vingegaard’. There are race favourites that are much further up the list.” 

“That being said, the route’s a nice gift from ASO. So, thank you.”

Team time trials offer something different

It has been three long years since the last team time trial at WorldTour level, which was also at the Vuelta a España, so Friday’s stage was an opportunity to watch something a little bit fresh, a little bit different.

One can understand why race organisers are loathe to put these into their Grand Tours, with lengthy courses round a city hard to organise, a sense that they might be a bit dull, and that they offer far too much to some teams.

However, a short-ish TTT will not create too many time gaps, as we saw on stage one, and is something a bit funky and new for fans and riders alike. The fact that 33 riders had never even ridden a pro TTT shows how unpopular they have become, but there is no need for this to continue.

Utrecht comes out for La Vuelta

It should not be a surprise that the Dutch love cycling, this is one stereotype that is both positive and deserved. However, on a mildly moist evening in Utrecht, the Dutch fans proved that they love the sport. It is no coincidence that the city has hosted all three Grand Tours, as they are clearly cycling mad there, and it was refreshing to see such crowds at the side of the road. 

The wall of noise for Jumbo-Visma was particularly impressive, as the fans made their love for the home team clear.

A time trial offers onlookers a chance to see all of the riders, rather than the peloton just speeding by, and they were treated to an exhibition of formation riding from the 184 riders. In this post-Covid policy world, it is refreshing to see such numbers at a bike race, long may it continue.

EF Education-EasyPost lose time

Looking at the results, it appears that there was only one serious general classification team that lost time on the opening day - EF Education-EasyPost. Distant are the days of Garmin, when they would be all conquering at TTTs; instead, the American outfit ended up shipping 1-19 to Jumbo-Visma.

Now, this might not seem like a lot, and this is only stage one after all, but it means Primož Roglič already has a considerable advantage over the likes of Hugh Carthy, Rigoberto Urán and Esteban Chaves, who all could feasibly do well on GC.

It is far from race over, but it is an alarm, and proof of changing times at EF.

Ineos Grenadiers and Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl come close, but miss out

Three squads went under 25 minutes on the 23.3km course, but only one could win, which meant Ineos Grenadiers and Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl both put in impressive rides for no reward. Both super-teams controlled their efforts well, not dropping riders at inopportune times, and therefore came close to winning in Utrecht.

It would be simple to say that it was the drier conditions that did it for the pair, but it clearly helped - one of the other pre-race favourites, BikeExchange-Jayco, had to deal with mixed conditions, and came in twenty seconds down.

Both squads are filled with powerhouses, much like the team that beat them, Jumbo-Visma, and so it should come as no surprise that they are so good at TTTs. They are just 13 and 14 seconds down on the red jersey, respectively, so it was a good day at the office. With bonus seconds on offer in the sprints, maybe Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) is in with a shout of claiming the red jersey this weekend.

Jumbo-Visma are already in control of the race

What a difference 12 months makes. After the first stage of last year's Vuelta, Primož Roglič won the time trial and claimed the red jersey at the opening opportunity. A year on, he did not manage it - shock - but instead it was his teammate Robert Gesink who did the honours.

OK, so not much of a difference. An opening effort against the clock, and Jumbo-Visma in pole position once again; there is just something ominous about the Dutch team at the Vuelta, something that seems unbeatable, however true this actually is.

Crossing the line with all eight riders was a nice touch, a reminder to their competitors that they are very much in control. It is already hard to bet against Roglič winning a fourth successive Vuelta, even this early on. The men in yellow love the red race.

Richard Carapaz will ride for EF Education-EasyPost from next season, after joining from Ineos Grenadiers.

Carapaz won the Giro d’Italia in 2019 and took the gold medal in the road race at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The Ecuadorian rider is due to begin the Vuelta a España with Ineos Grenadiers but will move to the American team next year. 

In the announcement made by EF Education-EasyPost, Carapaz said: 

“This is a team with a lot of ambition and many things they want to achieve. I’m a piece that can fit into the team really well. I’m motivated and was looking for a team with the same objectives as me. 

"I have the focus and want to try to win the Tour de France and I think that’s something we can achieve here together. 

Earlier this year Carapaz finished second to Australian Jai Hindley at the Giro d'Italia. 

The Olympic Champion will become the third Ecuadorian to ride for the American squad along with current riders Jonathan Caicedo and Alexander Cepeda. 

“The team wants to reach its goals and that’s something really valuable to me," he continued. "A team like this that wants to win a grand tour like me. This is something we will have to work a lot for because this is something that takes a lot of work, a lot of dedication, and that’s what this team has. 

"I’m motivated to join the team to fight for this dream and the team has confidence in me so we’re going to achieve all that we can together.”

EF's team boss Jonathan Vaughters said that they were excited to "exploit" his "aggressive and crafty racing style".

“Carapaz has always been one of my favorite riders,” he said in the statement. “And not just because he wins. Carapaz wins with intelligence, timing, aggressiveness, and grit. 

"He won the Giro because he was really smart and he attacked at exactly the right moment. He was incredibly gritty and willing to take a risk to do it, and he pulled it off. I appreciate that. 

“At the Olympics, same thing. He timed his attack perfectly to win the gold medal. For the style of our team, Richard fits in perfectly, because we need a leader who can win races using crafty tactics and not just raw horsepower. That is what Richard brings to us and we are really excited to help him as much as we can to exploit his aggressive and crafty racing style.”

Meanwhile, earlier this afternoon, Jumbo-Visma announced that they had completed the signing of Paris-Roubaix 2022 winner Dylan van Baarle, also from Ineos.

The Dutchman will join the Tour de France winning squad along with Bora-Hansgrohe rider and fellow countryman Wilco Kelderman.