2019 Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz returns to Maglia Rosa fight as EF Education-EasyPost confirm Grand Tour lineup

EF Education-EasyPost have become the final team to officially announce their lineup for the 2025 Giro d'Italia, confirming a team built around supporting the general classification ambitions of 2019 Maglia Rosa winner Richard Carapaz.

"The Giro is a very important race for me and my sports career because it was the first one I was able to win as a three-week rider. I have prepared for this one well and my ambitions are very big. This will be my fourth Giro. The last three were very good, and I hope this one will be the same, or even better," says Carapaz himself in a press release on the team's official website. "I spent some days in Ecuador, where I trained well. I hope everything comes together as planned and as hoped."

With Carapaz supported by a strong team of Kasper Asgreen, Georg Steinhauser, Alexander Cepeda, Owain Doull, Mikkel Honoré, Darren Rafferty, and James Shaw, there is plenty of quality surrounding the Ecuadorian. "The team is very prepared. We all know our plan. We’re bringing all of our experiences to make the Giro ours. We can’t hide our ambitions: we want to win the race," comments Carapaz on his support. "We have had this intention for months. We want to win. It’s the main focus for the team right now. The staff and riders know what’s up. We want to do it well and we are hoping for the best."

For Steinhauser, the 2025 Giro d'Italia marks a return to the race that saw the German announce himself to the wider cycling world twelve months ago, taking a stage win and coming close to even more. "The history and tradition of the Giro in Italy is something special. It is one of the grand tours, and racing with all of the Italian fans is always cool," Steinhauser says. "I will support Richie and if I get the opportunity and have the legs to have a similar Giro like I did last year, that would be amazing."

"My preparation this year didn’t go as planned, and I missed some races, but it is going to be really cool to ride for Richie. He is a nice leader because he is super experienced. He knows what he has to do. He knows what calls he needs to make and you know that he is always going to be in the right position at the right moment. That makes a lot of the work we need to do easier," concludes the preview of the 23-year-old German talent. "First, we have the start in Albania. I have never been to Albania before, but it is always cool to race in new and different countries. We are in the hotels a lot and spend a lot of time on the bike, but we still get to know the country a little bit. This is something I really enjoy. Albania probably wouldn’t have been one of my top go-to countries, but to experience it here now is awesome."