Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

[Anderis]

I know I'm biased in favor of American riders because I'm asking myself how can they not sign Sean Quinn? But his stats are not very good this season despite 68 race days.

Sean Quinn is already confirmed to stay with EF according to one post I've read on this forum, it's just that PCS hasn't updated that information.

Surprised Shaw has not been offered a contract for next year yet. Having listened to Vaughters, during Eurosport tour coverage, praise himself for recognising the talent of Shaw and signing him, and then saying what a good season he was having.
Though perhaps I should not be surprised.

Vaughters once said about Jose Neves Fernandes that he was the biggest Portuguese talent since Rui Costa when he was a trainee at his team but then never offered him a full time deal.

That being said, just because PCS doesn't have an info on it, it doesn't mean that Shaw hasn't already signed a long time ago, unless you have a source that confirms he is still without a contract.

But only 3 spots left and at least Amador, Kudus, Eiking, Doull, Caicedo, Shaw and Van den Berg are riders for whom I find it weird that their future is still uncertain at this point of the year. EF have very few riders for flat races confirmed for 2024 so I guess Doull and Van den Berg have higher chances of being among the retained while between Kudus, Eiking, Caicedo and Camargo there will be at least three departures.

 

[Anderis]

I had a dream today that I checked the EF 2024 page on PCS and they had 29 riders confirmed- the 26 that are currently there + Quinn, Doull and a Spanish rider I've never heard about before.

 

[tobydawq]

I had a dream today that I checked the EF 2024 page on PCS and they had 29 riders confirmed- the 26 that are currently there + Quinn, Doull and a Spanish rider I've never heard about before.

Your dream has partly become true. Finally, Quinn and Shaw are announced for next year (so was Doull (and Amador) a while ago).

 

[yaco]

They need their good riders to win races and gain UCI points because they have a young and inexperienced squad for 2024.

 

[Anderis]

They need their good riders to win races and gain UCI points because they have a young and inexperienced squad for 2024.

Even with Carapaz barely contributing anything and Powless crashing in the Ardennes campaign, they were able to finish 11th in the UCi Team Ranking and 8th in the teams' wins ranking so I'm optimistic that they'll manage just fine in 2024. They've kept 13 out of their 14 best scoring riders and Carapaz is likely to deliver more results next year, so basically they have the same team that's already performed well in 2023 despite a decent portion of bad luck, except they've replaced some of the worst performing riders with young talents. It doesn't look like they're under a lot of pressure for 2024 if you ask me. Things looked much worse in mid 2022, for example.

 

[Potomac]

#	ridername	age
1	AMADOR Andrey	37y + 115d
2	COSTA Rui	37y + 78d
3	URÁN Rigoberto	36y + 330d
4	CHAVES Esteban	33y + 339d
5	VALGREN Michael	31y + 318d
6	DOULL Owain	30y + 234d
7	CARAPAZ Richard	30y + 207d
8	BETTIOL Alberto	30y + 54d
9	CARTHY Hugh	29y + 166d
10	SHAW James	27y + 192d
11	POWLESS Neilson	27y + 110d
12	DE BOD Stefan	27y + 35d
13	HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich	26y + 335d
14	RUTSCH Jonas	25y + 332d
15	CEPEDA Jefferson Alexander	25y + 189d
16	SWEENY Harry	25y + 166d
17	CARR Simon	25y + 115d
18	BISSEGGER Stefan	25y + 100d
19	VAN DEN BERG Marijn	24y + 156d
20	QUINN Sean	23y + 226d
21	HEALY Ben	23y + 102d
22	PICCOLO Andrea	22y + 274d
23	VAN DER LEE Jardi Christiaan	22y + 138d
24	STEINHAUSER Georg	22y + 62d
25	RYAN Archie	22y + 36d
26	TODOME Yuhi	21y + 187d
27	ROOTKIN-GRAY Jack	21y + 47d
28	RAFFERTY Darren	20y + 174d
29	NERURKAR Lukas	20y + 38d
30	BELOKI Markel	18y + 148d

 

[Potomac]

I put the table (from PCS) in age order from oldest to youngest.

 

[Potomac]

Here the PCS net value transfer for 2023 to 2024
I don't put a whole lot into it , but I think fun to look at and see how EF compares.

#	Team	Points lost▲▼	Points gained▲▼	Up/down
1	INEOS Grenadiers	2438	253	▼2185
2	Soudal - Quick Step	4047	2009	▼2038
3	Groupama - FDJ	2794	802	▼1992
4	Bahrain - Victorious	2200	304	▼1896
5	Intermarché - Wanty	1781	362	▼1419
6	Team Visma | Lease a Bike	3443	2529	▼914
7	Team dsm-firmenich PostNL	2224	1488	▼736
8	Cofidis	1773	1347	▼426
9	UAE Team Emirates	1712	1626	▼86
10	Movistar Team	1898	1817	▼81
11	Alpecin-Deceuninck	1059	997	▼62
12	EF Education-EasyPost	1254	1468	▲214
13	Arkéa - B&B Hotels	1083	1347	▲264
14	Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team	862	1409	▲547
15	Team Jayco AlUla	744	1969	▲1225
16	Astana Qazaqstan Team	877	2622	▲1745
17	Lidl - Trek	1350	3113	▲1763
18	BORA - hansgrohe	2143	4226	▲2083

 

[Anderis]

So EF is at net gain despite bringing in 7 neo-pros.

It looks as if they got rid of some dead wood.

 

[yaco]

You still need your quality riders to have good years because you are asking alot for neo-pros to score good points - In saying that, I have big hopes for Archie Ryan who can snag a win or two in his neo-pro year.

 

[Anderis]

You still need your quality riders to have good years because you are asking alot for neo-pros to score good points

Last year, only Powless, Healy and Van den Berg had really good years. The rest of important riders like Carapaz, Uran, Chaves, Bettiol and Carthy, underdelivered to a lesser or bigger extent, yet the team was still fine results-wise.
Neo-pros are coming in place of riders who barely scored anything anyway. The bar isn't that high for EF to repeat their 2023 results with their 2024 roster and it should be enough in their situation, but they could easily improve if Carapaz has a better year, Carthy or Bettiol finds some of the old form or one of the young riders has a breakthrough similar to Healy last year.

 

[theyoungest]

You still need your quality riders to have good years because you are asking alot for neo-pros to score good points - In saying that, I have big hopes for Archie Ryan who can snag a win or two in his neo-pro year.

Archie Ryan is really good. An oldschool pure climber. I'd be surprised if he didn't win anything next year, since he already won pro races as a U23 rider. And he didn't even race that much, because of a recurring knee problem (probably also the reason why Jumbo didn't sign him).

 

[Armchair cyclist]

EF definitely seem to be going for the Irish fan base, with Ryan, Rafferty, Healy and second generation Irish Quinn, Sweeney and Carthy.

And O'Nore.

Maybe Remi Cavanagh should have gone there rather than Movistar.

 

[Potomac]

EF's TDU startlist

141. HARRY SWEENEY (Australia)
142. STEFAN DE BOD (South Africa)
143. OWAIN DOULL (United Kingdom)
144. JACK ROOTKIN-GRAY (United Kingdom)
145. JONAS RUTSCH (Germany)
146. ARCHIE RYAN (Ireland)
147. JARDI CHRISTIAAN VAN DER LEE (Netherlands)

They can't lose

 

[Anderis]

EF's TDU startlist

141. HARRY SWEENEY (Australia)
142. STEFAN DE BOD (South Africa)
143. OWAIN DOULL (United Kingdom)
144. JACK ROOTKIN-GRAY (United Kingdom)
145. JONAS RUTSCH (Germany)
146. ARCHIE RYAN (Ireland)
147. JARDI CHRISTIAAN VAN DER LEE (Netherlands)

They can't lose

Yeah, how many riders are they going to put in the top5 overall? 3? 4?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

it’s an interesting squad. Mostly young with a leavening of veterans. The weakness is in the middle, with relatively few riders in their traditional prime years.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1742930772892532960

View: https://twitter.com/EFprocycling/status/1742930772892532960


Is it the lighting, or are those shorts brown (especially in the top left picture)? The spirit of AG2R pre-Decathlon lives on.


More importantly: EF Cannondale? Does that mean a reduction in funding from EasyPost, or an increase from Cannondale?

 

[StryderHells]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1742930772892532960

View: https://twitter.com/EFprocycling/status/1742930772892532960


Is it the lighting, or are those shorts brown (especially in the top left picture)? The spirit of AG2R pre-Decathlon lives on.


More importantly: EF Cannondale? Does that mean a reduction in funding from EasyPost, or an increase from Cannondale?

It’s the lighting I’m sorry to say

 

[Samu Cuenca]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1742930772892532960

View: https://twitter.com/EFprocycling/status/1742930772892532960


Is it the lighting, or are those shorts brown (especially in the top left picture)? The spirit of AG2R pre-Decathlon lives on.


More importantly: EF Cannondale? Does that mean a reduction in funding from EasyPost, or an increase from Cannondale?

EF Education-Cannondale is only the name of the women's team, as had already been announced when the team was launched last year. The X-Tweet is a bit confusing though, but on the website they're still referring to the men's team as EF Education-EasyPost. But Cannondale might also have increased their funding now that the two teams are fully linked to each other.

 

[Potomac]

Well it looks like Costa and Van Den Berg will be participating in all the upcoming "Trofeo" races later this month.

 

[Potomac]

After three stages of the Tour Down Under...

Best rider per stage​

Stage	Best	Rider
Stage 3	34	ROOTKIN-GRAY Jack
Stage 2	30	RYAN Archie
Stage 1	33	SWEENY Harry

 

[Potomac]

A win, 5th, and 6th in the Trofeo Calvia.

It's a good thing.

 

[Anderis]

I have a good feeling about Carr for this season for some reason.

 

[Unchained]

#	ridername	age
1	AMADOR Andrey	37y + 115d
2	COSTA Rui	37y + 78d
3	URÁN Rigoberto	36y + 330d
4	CHAVES Esteban	33y + 339d
5	VALGREN Michael	31y + 318d
6	DOULL Owain	30y + 234d
7	CARAPAZ Richard	30y + 207d
8	BETTIOL Alberto	30y + 54d
9	CARTHY Hugh	29y + 166d
10	SHAW James	27y + 192d
11	POWLESS Neilson	27y + 110d
12	DE BOD Stefan	27y + 35d
13	HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich	26y + 335d
14	RUTSCH Jonas	25y + 332d
15	CEPEDA Jefferson Alexander	25y + 189d
16	SWEENY Harry	25y + 166d
17	CARR Simon	25y + 115d
18	BISSEGGER Stefan	25y + 100d
19	VAN DEN BERG Marijn	24y + 156d
20	QUINN Sean	23y + 226d
21	HEALY Ben	23y + 102d
22	PICCOLO Andrea	22y + 274d
23	VAN DER LEE Jardi Christiaan	22y + 138d
24	STEINHAUSER Georg	22y + 62d
25	RYAN Archie	22y + 36d
26	TODOME Yuhi	21y + 187d
27	ROOTKIN-GRAY Jack	21y + 47d
28	RAFFERTY Darren	20y + 174d
29	NERURKAR Lukas	20y + 38d
30	BELOKI Markel	18y + 148d

I see them putting lots of hope on Carapaz and Powless getting it done and hope Ben Healy to continue rising. Uran and Rui Costa are definitely capable of coming up with some good days, podium or win here and there

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

I have a good feeling about Carr for this season for some reason.

I‘d say his 2024 season has already been a success, it can get hardly any better. All that comes now turns the season from perfect to extraterrestrial.

Today‘s ride, 125kms break and sprint victory, over Vlasov, has already been the „ride of the season“.

So he now can decide, staying on the Mallorca Island, or having holidays, and finishing the season early.

EF‘s team surprised me, once more, as so often. Normally, with Vaughters‘s public, apparent, approach to things, as yet shown over last decades, you would expect his teams would finish every season with less than three victories, at all. Today, once more, he surprises the world, and his rider beats Vlasov and McNulty.

USPS team under Lance‘s leadership was imho so much more American than Vaughters‘s teams - but tbh, in the meantime, I prefer Vaughters, and EF‘s team. They are different to everyone else, but they are still successful. Quite amazing. Happy for these guys; the pressure has evaporated, first victory accomplished.