“30 riders and 52,000 EF colleagues. Our strongest team yet.”
This season, EF Pro Cycling welcomes new faces Magnus Cort Neilson, Jens Keukeleire, Neilson Powless, Jonas Rutsch, Ruben Guerreiro and Kristoffer Halvorsen to the ranks. The Team’s 30 riders from 17 countries are backed by 52,000 pink-clad EF colleagues around the world — and a giant crocodile named Argyle.
EF Pro Cycling is set for another year of taking the path less traveled, racing from the ruler-straight gravel roads of the US to twisting trails in South Africa and to the top of the Alps and Dolomites. The squad will race, wander, make new friends, and play plenty more games of UNO around the dinner table. We’ll go firmly outside our comfort zones to see the world and make new connections.
EF Education First came into the peloton in 2018 and immediately disrupted cycling’s status quo — something that continues into 2020 as the team will add new races (and continents) to its calendar. This season, the program will see the team take to start lines on nearly all the world’s continents. From the plains of Africa to the hills of Kansas to the jungles of Brazil, the infamous cobblestones of Belgium and the Alps of France, the team will chart a new course. On gravel, road, and mountain bikes, we’ll wander the world and connect with new people and communities.
The team also celebrates its 10th anniversary of being in the WorldTour in 2020. We go into a decade at the top level with gratitude for the support over the last 10 years and with our renegade spirit intact. The world of cycling is changing. Expect to see pink leading the charge.
Hear from the team:
You’ll find us at the intersection of sport, culture and exploration — where effort, community, and hard-earned fun meet. We’re on a mission to explore the world and welcome all to join us, from our alternative program to the WorldTour. From Japan to Kansas there will be hardcore racing to laughs by the fire. We know there will be tough moments along the way, that’s cycling (and life). But, you can count on us to ride each race with purpose and personality, to reciprocate the love we feel from our fans and fellow EF teammates around the world.
–Mary Wittenberg, EF Pro Cycling president
The core culture of the team has always been to disrupt, right from its inception, it’s what we’ve always been about, it was our founding principle. Different teams have different founding principles, but on this team from square one it was about doing things in a different way. We wanted to engage new audiences and new fans in an authentic and transparent way, whether it be through our stance on anti-doping or all the behind the scenes documentary content that we brought to people during 2019. The last ten years have always been about living up to that founding principle and continuously doing so. For 2020 what I would like to see more than anything else is a continuation of the up and coming talents that we’ve brought onto the team, that they continue to move forward and step into the key positions on the team.
-Jonathan Vaughters, EF Pro Cycling CEO
We are a team of 30 cyclists, from 17 countries, which means we get to learn a lot about different cultures. That’s what we do as cyclists, we keep exploring and learning, and I’m looking forward to doing more of that in 2020. I’m also looking forward to being back on the bike and to enjoy racing again, to be more confident and I hope to be fine for the Tour de France and look forward to getting out there racing with the team again.
-Rigoberto Uran, EF Pro Cycling rider
I always knew we were going to have fun doing the alternative program, like that wasn’t really a question. But I really hoped that a lot of people would get behind it, and in my head, I thought cycling was looking for that different narrative at that top level but to see that transpire, yeah I guess it was surprising to see the level of people who connected with us when it was all about trying to have fun.
-Lachlan Morton, EF Pro Cycling rider
Last year there were so many favorite moments, but one of them was when I signed the contract with EF. It was something that I’d always dreamed of, being in a World Tour team. To then be part of a team where we’re encouraged to learn about different cultures, to understand how other people are because of their origin, that’s a great way to explore the world. When I think of EF, I think that it is a huge family that joins together many nationalities, uniting the world.
-Sergio Higuita, EF Pro Cycling rider
I honestly think it went better than we ever imagined it would, and a lot of that was due to our partners and EF doing an awesome job promoting the whole thing. But we also got a little lucky, I mean it’s pretty damn hard to win a bike race and straight after Kanza, I won nationals and straight after Leadville Lachlan won a stage of Utah, which reconfirmed that we are still both top-level WorldTour road racers, not just a sideshow act.
-Alex Howes, EF Pro Cycling rider
It feels really special, an honor to be a part of the team, I think that cycling is not going to be what it is now in 20 years, it’s going to be completely different. In order for the sport to be relevant and popular and appeal to the masses, it’s going to have to change significantly because I truly think the sport is going towards more open races, more alternative races and to be on a team that embraces that is really special. I think in 20 years when you look back there’ll be a few key teams who really effected change and I think our team is going to be that team.
-Mike Woods, EF Pro Cycling rider
I think we are a different team from all the others, first because of the color, because of the style that we have, the attitude, the approach to the fans, how we use our social media. The fact that we’re part of a company that helps people to learn English and other languages all over the world, this makes me really proud to be a part of it. I think this year what will be important for me is how I approach races, the confidence that I have in myself. It’s going to be more about the mental side of things than physical because I’ve shown everyone that when I feel good, I can be at the front of the race and also win.
-Alberto Bettiol, EF Pro Cycling rider
Photo Jordan Clark Haggard
