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Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

Page 50 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Although, interestingly, steephill lists Howes on a provisional startlist for TdF, he is not intended to ride there.
Howes expects to showcase the stars and stripes in early August.

“I think my next race is Tour of Utah,” he said. “It’s only right to debut the jersey on home soil.”
https://www.efprocycling.com/alex-howes-us-national-road-champion/

It's annoying EF is always so late to announce their GT rosters. I bet it's Uran, Van Garderen, Woods, Craddock, Bettiol, Clarke, Vanmarke and Langeveld but that's a bit of wishful thinking because it'll probably be Phinney instead of Langeveld as Phinney didn't race the US nationals. :razz:
 
So it is: Uran, Van Garderen, Woods, Kangert, Bettiol, Clarke, Langeveld, Scully.

Tiny surprises for me are the omissions of Vanmarcke and Craddock but all of the 8 picked were among the most 11 likely to be picked in my eyes. A well balanced team for all terrain and Woods is the only weak point for the TTT. Actually it makes sense to take Scully instead of Vanmarcke with TTT in mind. I wonder who of these would be out if Martinez wasn't injured.
 
Scully did a very goog ITT in TdS, so I think is a good selection. Very strong people as Vanmarcke, Craddock, Hugh Carthy, Pinney, Higuita and Dombroski are out, so that means is a very strong team.

I dont know if some of those names are out for some problems, but is a good balanced team for le Tour. I dont Know of Tejay or Kangert will be 100 % for Rigo if it is necessary, but Simon Clarke did a good job for him when he was second.
 
Re: Re:

jaylew said:
offbyone said:
You got to be kidding me that Phinney is on the team. What a waste of a spot.
Relax, Phinney is not on the Tour squad.

Oh good. I saw his name listed and was thinking I can't remember even seeing him on camera in a race this year. I guess he could be seen as valuable in the TTT but again haven't seen him do much and EF education has been on a roll with a lot of riders on the team deserving that spot.
 
Re: Re:

offbyone said:
jaylew said:
offbyone said:
You got to be kidding me that Phinney is on the team. What a waste of a spot.
Relax, Phinney is not on the Tour squad.

Oh good. I saw his name listed and was thinking I can't remember even seeing him on camera in a race this year. I guess he could be seen as valuable in the TTT but again haven't seen him do much and EF education has been on a roll with a lot of riders on the team deserving that spot.

I think Craddock was the one they were seriously considering for the TTT and flat stages. From the sounds of it he was one of the last ones to not make the Tour team.
 
With their TT form this year, I really hoped for a top3 performance in the TTT, although it would be exaggeration to say they disappointed since they only lost 8secs to 2nd place but what I find interesting is that Woods finished on the same time. He is by far the weakest TT-ist in the roster so it would make sense to drop him earlier, it looks like they might have been protecting him? I wonder if it costed them a few seconds.

Bettiol looked like he had so much in reserve at the finish. Maybe that's because he was towing a bunch of climbers on the flat to the line but it looks like he should have legs to try something in the following stages.
 
Unfortunately, the team was unable to carry the momentum from good spring onto the TdF and it's been a rather bad race for them so far.
Clarke and Bettiol seem to be nowhere near their spring form. Both outclimbed today by some guys they should be able to keep up with. The team didn't do the job on the echelon stage and there have been a lot of crashes involving team members. Didn't really come close to winning a stage despite trying on several occasions. Uran not very well positioned for GC. Rather frustrating to watch.

I wonder about their transfers for 2020. There haven't been many rumours linking riders to EF so far.
 
Why is the team not announcing any new signings or contract extensions? Not a single one since 1st of August. Weird.

2017 had been kind of similar (but not quite, they had announced contract extensions with Uran and Van Baarle in August) before it turned out the team didn't have a sponsor secured for 2018. But I'm fairy sure I've read this year that their current sponsorship is secured for many years and their contract extensions with Martinez and Woods in the spring would suggest so.
 

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