2024 Season Review | EF Education - EasyPost: Richard Carapaz on fire, but is there cause for concern heading in to 2025?
Cycling
Over the past few weeks, we have started to review each World Tour team’s 2024 season. Today, the team we’re looking at is Jonathan Vaughters’ EF Education–EasyPost, the American team lead by Richard Carapaz. The team finished 12th in the UCI rankings on 11595 points, one place lower than their position this time last year.
Whilst the team’s headquarters are in Boulder, Colorado, their main training facilities are in Girona, Catalonia, Spain, which highlights the shift of American teams moving over to Europe. The team often prioritises its performances in the grand tours much more than the one-day races, but they did pick up a promising 24 race wins throughout the year.
Let’s take a look at what went well for EF Education – EasyPost throughout the year, and if there are any areas they should be concerned about heading into 2025.
Spring season
Neilson Powless has been one of the strongest riders for the team in previous spring seasons, however, he was missing from the team’s arsenal this time around due to an injury. As a result, the pressure was on Alberto Bettiol to pick up some results before the likes of Richard Carapaz could help out during the grand tour season.
And Bettiol certainly pulled his weight for the team. The 31-year-old Italian picked up one of the team’s first wins of the season at Milano – Torino with an incredible 30km solo attack. It was a massive moment for the team to win the oldest classic in the sport, in its 105th edition. Just as the mighty UAE Team-Emirates started to put the hammer down, Bettiol attacked and flew past them, and he clung on to win by just seven seconds.
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Bettiol followed up this showing by coming fifth at Milan - San Remo, which secured the team a much-needed 100 points for their UCI ranking. Bettiol would go on to provide more success for EF Education – EasyPost at the Boucles de la Mayenne – Credit Mutuel, where he won the second stage and took the GC win too. This result picked up another 150 points for the team, and shows just how important he is to them. The Italian even had a strong showing at the Tour of Flanders, even though that race will only be remembered for Mathieu van der Poel.
It’s safe to say that without Bettiol, the team would have struggled in the early part of the season. He’s now leaving the team for 2025, but we’ll get to that concern shortly.
Grand Tour season
At the Giro d’Italia in May, the team had a relatively quiet three weeks but did manage to take home a stage victory. Stage 17 saw something of a rarity for this year’s Giro, as it was one of the few stages that Tadej Pogacar did not blow the field away in. Instead, EF Education-EasyPost's Georg Steinhauser, who is related to Jan Ullric, won the stage on Passo Brocon. With just over 2km left of the penultimate climb, Steinhauser rode away from his companion in their two man breakaway. By the time the EF Education-EasyPost man had summited the climb, his advantage was 1:44 over the peloton, and Steinhauser was looking good for the stage win.
INEOS Grenadiers were at the front of the peloton, and with 5km to go, Jhonatan Narvaez began to increase the pace on the front of the bunch, with casualties immediately dropping out of a dwindling Maglia Rosa group. Despite the acceleration in the bunch, the GC group never really put Steinhauser under threat, and he took a massive win for his career, and his team.
Aside from Steinhauser’s win in the Giro, there was one glaring fact on show during the season: EF Education – EasyPost rely heavily on Richard Carapaz throughout the longer races. After all, the 31-year-old won the Giro d’Italia back in 2019 and finished third at the Tour de France in 2021 behind Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. Jonathan Vaughters put a lot of money and faith into signing Carapaz from Team INEOS in 2023, but their first Tour de France campaign together was marred by disaster when Carapaz crashed out on the very first stage.
This year, he’d have more luck. The Ecuadorian entered the Tour de France aiming for stage wins and managed to take the yellow jersey on stage 3, making history as the first Ecuadorian rider to wear cycling’s most prized possession. After losing the leader’s jersey to Pogacar on stage 4, Carapaz went on to become one of the highlights of the Tour. His regular attacking and refusal to give up in seemingly dire situations lit up many stages across the three weeks in France back in July, but for a long time, it seemed the stage win would elude him. But finally, on stage 17, Carapaz went solo to pick up his maiden Tour de France stage win after many years of close calls. It was a fan-favourite win, and he won the polka-dot jersey on stage 19 of the Tour, managing to hold on to become the 2024 Tour de France King of the Mountains, the first Ecuadorian to do so.
But the Ecuadorian’s summer wasn’t done there, as he also took on the year’s final Grand Tour, the Vuelta a Espana. Unlike at the Tour, Carapaz made it clear that he was riding for the GC in Spain. Once more, he was one of the most exciting riders in the race, but finished just shy of the podium in fourth, behind Primoz Roglic, Ben O’Connor, and Enric Mas. Still, Carapaz proved that he is still one of the world’s best grand tour riders, and EF Education – EasyPost are certainly very fortunate to have him.
Transfers
Losing Alberto Bettiol will be a significant blow to EF Education – EasyPost, as his departure creates a void that will be difficult to fill. Bettiol, who picked up almost 1500 UCI points in 2024, has been vital to the team. His points tally alone equalled the combined total of Astana's top three riders, which explains why Astana Qazaqstan Team aggressively pursued him. This change leaves the American team with a gap in points and experience that will impact their rankings and performance. Bettiol's consistency, particularly in the classics, and his knack for scoring UCI points were assets EF Education – EasyPost will now miss, and they must address the problem quickly.
The team has made a number of new signings to bolster its ranks. Vincenzo Albanese joins from Arkéa - B&B Hotels, and the 27-year-old Italian is eager to make his mark with the American team team. He’s set his sights on competing at the Tour de France and hopes to perform well in the classics. Additionally, Rui Costa, the 38-year-old Portuguese rider and former world champion, has signed an extension with the team, committing to at least one more season. His experience and presence in the World Tour peloton will be invaluable as he continues with the team into 2025.
The team has also secured Samuele Battistella, Madis Mihkels, Kasper Asgreen, Alex Baudin, and Max Walker for the 2025 season. Mihkels, a 21-year-old Estonian prospect, expressed his excitement about joining the team, seeing it as a perfect step forward in his career. With the gap left by Bettiol, EF Education – EasyPost will be counting on their new signings to step up to the task, and quickly.
Final verdict: 7/10
On the whole, this was a positive season for the American team. They picked up stage wins at the Giro and Tour, and nearly got a podium with Carapaz at the Vuelta. Carapaz’s stage win and mountain classifications win at the Tour are already amongst the team’s best ever moments, and Carapaz himself will be happy with the way he performed this year.
Despite this, there are some causes for concern. The loss of Bettiol, and the reliance on Carapaz, could create problems going forward. If Carapaz begins to show any signs of losing his touch in 2025, the team will really be scratching around looking for where their points are coming from. Whilst this was a good year for the team, they need some of their other riders to step up next year to carry on the positive momentum.
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