Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

[Sciatic]

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.

I’m excited to see what Powless, Carapaz, Healy, Carr and several others will be able to achieve with EF this year,

 

[Anderis]

So 3 Mallorcan classics and they've put 5 different riders in top6 of at least one of them. Not a bad sign for the rest of the season.

 

[Potomac]

Agreed. Summer 2022 they were in a fierce relegation battle. They need to grab points in races like these to keep themselves out of that situation summer 2025

 

[Anderis]

What an exciting team for Strade Bianche.

 

[Bolder]

What an exciting team for Strade Bianche.

Indeed. How do you play it, though? All of them will have leadership aspirations, even Rui. Long-range attack with Healy? Put Costa in a break? Let the other three try to stay with the leaders and try to join promising attacks?

 

[Anderis]

How do you play it, though?

That's a good question.

Assuming that everybody is in good form, you gotta try some long range attacks. Healy and Powless are especially suited to long breakaways on a hard day so I guess what you want is to make the race explode far from the finish line and then use your numbers to have someone in every promising move.

That's just theory, though. Come the race day, you mind find yourself that you only really have one or two riders in form and it doesn't work.

 

[Sciatic]

Indeed. How do you play it, though? All of them will have leadership aspirations, even Rui. Long-range attack with Healy? Put Costa in a break? Let the other three try to stay with the leaders and try to join promising attacks?

At least for the portions of prior races we’ve seen broadcast, I don’t remember team tactics being a big factor: riders are either strong enough to stay with the lead group on the final Strade sectors or they aren’t? If EF did get a couple of riders in the front group then they could alternate going off the front, regardless of who their designated leader might be. But again, that’s not a scenario we’ve seen in recent years.

 

[Potomac]

What an exciting team for Strade Bianche.

It should be a great race, and EF a serious threat.

 

[Potomac]

According to PCS. EF has scored the 4th most team UCI points so far this season.
Here's the breakdown by rider for EF.

#	rider	Points counted	Points not counted	Sanctions
1	CARAPAZ Richard	364	-
2	VAN DEN BERG Marijn	190	-
3	BETTIOL Alberto	143	-
4	CARR Simon	128	-
5	URÁN Rigoberto	66	-
6	CEPEDA Jefferson Alexander	65	-
7	RUTSCH Jonas	60	-
8	HEALY Ben	60	-
9	COSTA Rui	50	-
10	RYAN Archie	45	-
11	NERURKAR Lukas	40	-
12	CHAVES Esteban	30	-
13	HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich	30	-
14	DOULL Owain	15	-
15	DE BOD Stefan	12	-
16	ROOTKIN-GRAY Jack	12	-
17	SHAW James	6	-
18	VALGREN Michael	6	-
19	VAN DER LEE Jardi Christiaan	5	-
20	BISSEGGER Stefan	5	-
21	PICCOLO Andrea	-	5
22	SWEENY Harry	-	1

 

[Anderis]

Has Van den Berg made another step up in terms of consistency?

4 top10's out of 5 race days is something he would've rarely shown before.

It's refreshing to have a sprinter that you can rely on in this team. First in more than a decade, I think.

 

[Anderis]

Judging from PCS, it looks like the entire team crashed again in UAE Tour today.

 

[Potomac]

Judging from PCS, it looks like the entire team crashed again in UAE Tour today.

Or at least got held up behind the crash? De Bod is DNF everyone else is same time

 

[Potomac]

EF not making much of a mark yet at the UAE

 

[Potomac]

OTOH, they had a good showing in the dubious Gran Camino TT today

 

[Anderis]

EF not making much of a mark yet at the UAE

Carr was top10 on the mountain stage and is sitting in the top10 overall. I don't think you could have hoped for much more with this squad.

 

[Tim Cahill]

That Rafferty result today is interesting isn't it. I knew he was a very talented climber but he beat some serious people today, Barta, Kelderman, Kwiatkowski, Hayter among those who were actually trying, perhaps a future GC prospect.

 

[Potomac]

That Rafferty result today is interesting isn't it. I knew he was a very talented climber but he beat some serious people today, Barta, Kelderman, Kwiatkowski, Hayter among those who were actually trying, perhaps a future GC prospect.

I'm certainly keeping an eye on all these new young signings they made.
This season could be very promising.

 

[Anderis]

That's a pretty mediocre performance in Gran Camino considering who EF brought to the race and how few other strong teams are in the race.

 

[Potomac]

I guess top fiving in the tour of Colombia doesn't translate to Galicia

 

[triley36]

Not sure who is more incompetent, the sports performance team and directors responsible for the EF spring classics preparation, or me for continuing to pick EF riders for my spring CQ team? Both should be fired promptly. Their performance today was absolutely dismal, but right in line with what they’ve done for the past couple of years. They have been invisible outside of Powless.

 

[Anderis]

Their performance today was absolutely dismal, but right in line with what they’ve done for the past couple of years.

Last year in Omloop they had 4 riderrs in the top30, so they keep regressing.

 

[Bolder]

I think it's the pink jerseys. There's plenty of other teams bollixing up their tactics and falling short of expectations but they're all in dark blue. EF just stands out more.

 

[Potomac]

Ha!
I have poor color vision and pink is practically invisible to me.

 

[Potomac]

Paris Nice start list for EF (from PCS)

• -BISSEGGER Stefan
• -VAN DEN BERG Marijn
• -VALGREN Michael
• -URÁN Rigoberto
• -DOULL Owain
• -ROOTKIN-GRAY Jack
• -RUTSCH Jonas

Any chance of a stage victory? Stage podium? Uran should get a 5th -10th GC

 

[Anderis]

Paris Nice start list for EF (from PCS)

• -BISSEGGER Stefan
• -VAN DEN BERG Marijn
• -VALGREN Michael
• -URÁN Rigoberto
• -DOULL Owain
• -ROOTKIN-GRAY Jack
• -RUTSCH Jonas

Any chance of a stage victory? Stage podium? Uran should get a 5th -10th GC

I don't think Uran will do much and I don't think that EF will get a stage win.

Stage podium? Maybe TTT or Van den Berg, especially if some of the stages end up in a reduced group sprint.