Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

[DNP-Old]

They're signing Darren Rafferty, who is a very talented kid. Trying to get a monopoly on all Irish riders.

 

[theyoungest]

They're signing Darren Rafferty, who is a very talented kid. Trying to get a monopoly on all Irish riders.

And this Irish rider is actually Irish (if his name is anything to go by).

 

[ciranda]

Noooooo, I want Cort AND Healey both!

I thought EF was a good fit for him.

Is it confirmed anywhere? I don't wanna believe

 

[Anderis]

Is it confirmed anywhere? I don't wanna believe

No transfers of WT/PRT riders can be confirmed until the 1st of August. All we have for now is rumours.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

And this Irish rider is actually Irish (if his name is anything to go by).

Co Tyrone (Dungannon, where the national championships are taking place today (TT) and over the weekend), so entitled to call himself Irish or British.

But given the Irish diaspora, names are not anything to go by: Ben O'Connor, Kelland O'Brien, Sean Quinn, Tao Geoghegan (not so much the Hart bit), Colin Joyce, Kyle Murphy...

 

[theyoungest]

Co Tyrone (Dungannon, where the national championships are taking place today (TT) and over the weekend), so entitled to call himself Irish or British.

But given the Irish diaspora, names are not anything to go by: Ben O'Connor, Kelland O'Brien, Sean Quinn, Tao Geoghegan (not so much the Hart bit), Colin Joyce, Kyle Murphy...

And Gerry Rafferty

 

[Armchair cyclist]

not a current pro-cyclist, to the best of my knowledge

 

[theyoungest]

not a current pro-cyclist, to the best of my knowledge

No, but he's a famous Scot. With the same last name as aforementioned Irish cyclist.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Which sort of proves my point about not being able to conclude Irish nationality from an Irish surname.

 

[theyoungest]

Which sort of proves my point about not being able to conclude Irish nationality from an Irish surname.

Well duh, that's why I mentioned it.

 

[Salvarani]

Which sort of proves my point about not being able to conclude Irish nationality from an Irish surname.

But they probably have Irish heritage.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Well duh, that's why I mentioned it.

But contradicting your earlier post, having originally cited the name as grounds to assume that he "is actually Irish" (as if it were more Irish than Ó hÉilidhe)

 

[theyoungest]

But contradicting your earlier post, having originally cited the name as grounds to assume that he "is actually Irish" (as if it were more Irish than Ó hÉilidhe)

Yes, that was the joke. Hence the smiley.

 

[SafeBet]

Bettiol will extend until 2025 according to Gazzetta.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Bettiol will extend until 2025 according to Gazzetta.

Good news. He hasn’t really had the career most of us expected since his Flanders win and his form can be very inconsistent, but he’s still one of the strongest riders on the team.

 

[SafeBet]

Good news. He hasn’t really had the career most of us expected since his Flanders win and his form can be very inconsistent, but he’s still one of the strongest riders on the team.

Yeah he's not a regular scorer due to sickness and inconsistency but he will get a few big results here and there.

 

[RedheadDane]

Is it confirmed anywhere? I don't wanna believe

Of course it's not confirmed. No transfers can be announced until 1/8.

 

[Anderis]

So it would appear the riders under contract for 2024 are:
Bettiol, Bissegger, Carapaz, Carr, Cepeda, Chaves, De Bod, Healy, Honore, Padun, Piccolo, Powless, Rafferty, Rutsch, Uran, Valgren.

That's already decent to very good on paper in areas like mountains, hills, cobbles and time trials.

The only thing lacking are sprinters in any shape or form.

 

[janraaskalt]

Of course it's not confirmed. No transfers can be announced until 1/8.

Contract extensions can (and are)

 

[RedheadDane]

Contract extensions can (and are)

Yeah, but Cort going to Uno-X wouldn't be an extension, and just because EF hasn't announced an extension wouldn't confirm that he'd signed with Uno-X.

 

[janraaskalt]

Yeah, but Cort going to Uno-X wouldn't be an extension, and just because EF hasn't announced an extension wouldn't confirm that he'd signed with Uno-X.

Aha, I didn't go back far enough in the whole thread and was in Bettiol mode.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

have they definitely signed Darren Rafferty? That would be nice to see. He’s a big talent although so young that presumably he won’t be all that useful in his first year.

 

[RedheadDane]

have they definitely signed Darren Rafferty? That would be nice to see. He’s a big talent although so young that presumably he won’t be all that useful in his first year.

Might it be better for his development to go to the devo team first?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Might it be better for his development to go to the devo team first?

He apparently had interest from WT teams last year, after he won the U23 Strade Bianchi as an 18 year old, but his agents decided that he was too young. This year though, he’s just finished second at the Baby Giro and once you are at a level where you are podiuming that or Avenir there’s limited benefit to hanging around the espoir races for another year (or two or three).

Going to a fully professional team, with a fully professional training set up, is probably a rider’s best bet in development terms, assuming that the team is going to be careful. It wouldn‘t be a great idea to go to a team scrambling around for points where a kid could find themselves overraced. But EF have done a pretty good job bringing Healy through, they are in a very good place when it comes to points and they just generally aren’t under any pressure to perform better than they already are.

I would assume that if they are signing him, EF will have a plan to develop him without breaking him.

 

[DNP-Old]

So young, development team? He'll be 20 next week, already having two years of U23 under his belt. He ain't that unknown Irish kid setting France on fire no more. He's older than Lenny Martinez.