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Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

Page 79 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
How could I forget about Bardet? :openmouth:

Garmin also had a French rider in the past- Christophe Le Mevel- and he was quite good. I think it was during the time that Vaughters tried to lure BigMat as a sponsor but FDJ beat him to it.

I had a thought that maybe the sponsor seeks riders from a certain region of France but the sponsor is Region Sud (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) and Delettre was born in Gonesse which is half the country away.
 
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How could I forget about Bardet? :openmouth:

Garmin also had a French rider in the past- Christophe Le Mevel- and he was quite good. I think it was during the time that Vaughters tried to lure BigMat as a sponsor but FDJ beat him to it.

I had a thought that maybe the sponsor seeks riders from a certain region of France but the sponsor is Region Sud (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) and Delettre was born in Gonesse which is half the country away.
Vaughters’s team also had Rolland in the not too distant past. I had hoped EF or whatever incarnation they were at the time would be able to resurrect Rolland’s career like they had so many others, but it was not to be.
 
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Oh, and (how could I, or any of us, forget?) the World Champion rides for a Belgian team.

Barguil and Gallopin both ride for French teams currently, but definitely both had their best successes riding for Sunweb and Lotto. And if you go back in time, JF Bernard, de las Cuevas both rode for Indurain at Banesto and Jalabert had some (all?) of his biggest wins with ONCE. Chavanel did very well with Quickstep.

In summary; there are some French riders who ride for non-French teams. French riders do have a history of success when riding for non-French teams.
 
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Oh, and (how could I, or any of us, forget?) the World Champion rides for a Belgian team.
I mentioned Belgium at the beginning as the exception
I don't remember any French rider in a WT team that's not from France or Belgium other than El Fares at the moment.

In summary; there are some French riders who ride for non-French teams.
It would be a pretty bold statement to say there haven't been any, but perhaps there isn't any other nation with a bigger % of pro riders riding only domestic teams in the last 10-15 years? Kazakhstan maybe. Not counting cases like UAE which only has one pro rider in total and he rides for UAE-Team Emirates.
 
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Oh, and (how could I, or any of us, forget?) the World Champion rides for a Belgian team.

Barguil and Gallopin both ride for French teams currently, but definitely both had their best successes riding for Sunweb and Lotto. And if you go back in time, JF Bernard, de las Cuevas both rode for Indurain at Banesto and Jalabert had some (all?) of his biggest wins with ONCE. Chavanel did very well with Quickstep.

In summary; there are some French riders who ride for non-French teams. French riders do have a history of success when riding for non-French teams.
Jalabert also had nice success while riding for CSC-Tiscali.
 
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https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/introducing-ben-healy/

Seems like an interesting guy. Got his shot the hard way, scrabbling around for teams in the underage ranks, having to get results without much support. That said, it’s impossible to know how good he will end up being. Says pretty straightforwardly that he signed for EF because of all the teams that were in for him, they were trying to sign him earliest and wanted him the most.
 
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Harsh, but fair?


Anyone who would ride a Specialized over a Cannondale deserves what’s coming them, IMO.

Harsh, but well, the teams have a responsibility towards the sponsors, if they are too relaxed about this the sponsors probably aren't happy. Although I think it is always very weird to see the riders at their new teams with their equipment and jerseys from their current teams.
 
It was a rookie mistake from Higuita as Will said.

Anyways, from EF-side it wasn't classy as well. I don't think this is an uncommon practice from cyclist switching teams and this means cutting two months wages from Higuita.

They could have fined him with two weeks salary and a public apology from Higuita or whatever without burning bridges with him and looking desperate to save some $$$.
 
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Lol, of course they are not going to do that...

Why not? They're probably gonna be quite cool with the fact that he'll "have to" train in Bora kit now. And if not, it's definitely goint to be a win-win situation for them; they'll have a guy they don't pay, who still rides around showcasing their sponsors.

Actually, there's another thing I didn't consider. Depending on the rules, EF might have to pay his wages for the duration of his contract, the whole "can't just fire people from one day to the other" thing. In which case the whole thing becomes mostly symbolic.
 
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Actually what made me think for a moment was that Higuita does not only ride Specialized - which would be understandable, to get to know the bike, risks discontentment from his current team, but maybe it's worth it - but he also wears the Uran bibs... which he might have been asked to do by Uran, but it's not something that has any practical advantage for him (except for money, maybe...) So it looks like he was either totally naive or he risked a confrontation because there were some issues or feelings between him and the team?
 

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