EF Pro Cycling and Cannondale Bicycles will continue as partners at the highest level of road cycling — and on trails and dirt roads at new races — into the 2023 season.
The team and Cannondale have worked together since 2015 when Cannondale Pro Cycling joined with what was then the Garmin-Sharp outfit. And while team names have changed over time, the constant is the performance-leading bicycles the team pilots and the strong collaborative efforts between the team and Cannondale.
“At the core, the relationship with Cannondale is about evolution and revolution. We want to make progress on the roads, off the roads, and ultimately keep pushing the boundaries of our sport outward,” said EF Pro Cycling CEO Jonathan Vaughters. “We want to work with Cannondale to highlight the beauty of the elite level but also make the sport more accessible everywhere. We want more people riding bikes with smiles on their faces.”
The length of the agreement gives the team and Cannondale time to make true progress across multiple fronts: road, first and foremost, as well as mountain and gravel, since the team is now racing a mixed calendar of events. Beyond the road, the partnership has come to life on the wheels of the team’s alternative race calendar. From the empty dirt roads of Kansas to the rock paths of Great Britain and the high peaks of Leadville, Colorado. The new events allow the team and Cannondale to partner across disciplines, opening up the sport’s many facets and the perception of professional road cyclists.
Photo by Christy Nicholson / EchelonDesignPhoto.com
The extension allows the team and Cannondale to continue the technical progressions that have borne fruit in recent seasons, from the team’s renewed success in the team time trial to its involvement in fine-tuning the bicycles Cannondale engineers have in development.
“Our ambitions to build a larger community in cycling are in line with the spirit of EF Pro Cycling,” said Jonathan Geran, director of sports marketing for Cannondale. “We’re all working toward the same common goals – be the world’s favorite team, race with character and heart, and shift perceptions of what people think about bicycles, professional cycling, and its riders.”
The extension is a result of technical progress and open doors between the team and Cannondale.
“The bikes we race on from Cannondale this season are truly the peak of performance,” said Andreas Klier, the team’s head of Technical Operations and its Commercial Manager. “At a certain level, you expect every bike to be great. But what really sets us apart is the way we work together on all the details around the bikes, particularly new ones. The doors are open on both sides, and in an elite performance environment, this is very important. Beyond the bike frames, we’ve been able to make tremendous gains over the years with Cannondale’s suppliers as well, such as FSA/Vision, Prologo and Vittoria.”
Photo by Zac Williams
