Young talent switches INEOS Grenadiers for EF Education-EasyPost - "This team has a unique identity"

INEOS Grenadiers' 2026 lineup is still rather unclear with many spots left unfilled, but one of them will not be taken by its rider Michael Leonard. The Canadian rider is moving away from the British team and joining EF Education-EasyPost on a three-year deal where the American team is looking to develop him from a talent to an established rider.

“Last year, Michael won the opening time trial at the Tour de l’Avenir. It was a short prologue. One of the things I've always looked for in very young riders is their ability to do short time trials," team CEO Jonathan Vaughters said in a press release. "There is an old expression in sports physiology: you can always make a miler into a marathoner, but you can never make a marathoner into a miler. That TT got me thinking, ‘Okay, this is a good sign that he's got the fundamental super-high-VO2-max motor. I think this guy can do something big for us'."

The 21-year old turned pro with INEOS in 2023 but his time with the British team didn't prove to be the worthy investment for the British team as they now lose him as he begins to grow in the cycling world. Leonard is a quality time trialist, beating Derek Gee to take his first pro win back in June at the Canadian national championships. At the World Championships in Kigali, he was 12th, perhaps the highlight of his career thus far and a result that supports the potential for a top rider in the future.

"Michael doesn't have any big results in the pros just yet. He had to work a lot during his first three years. I think that our team will be a big reset for him. He is a time trialist who can also climb and is quite handy in a breakaway. He can get his body down really low and produce power on the road bike all day and he brings that double trouble in that he can climb too, so he can actually finish the job on the final climbs once he gets in a breakaway.”

“This team has a unique identity. Even growing up, watching the sport, it seemed like a team with an exciting culture," Leonard said. "It is a team that you always see on the attack, being opportunistic, and giving riders the space to express themselves and race in ways that suit them, so they can take the best advantage of situations on the road. It's a team that definitely gets the best out of its riders. You see riders who might not fit in other places perform really strongly on this team.”

The American team announced the signing of Luke Lamperti this Tuesday, but are far away from confirming their lineup for 2026. The likes of Richard Carapaz, Archie Ryan and Lukas Nerurkar are not yet secured whilst the team is likely to have a big change. Esteban Chaves, Hugh Carthy and James Shaw are amongst those likely to leave the team whilst Rui Costa has retired from the sport and Owain Doull is joining Team Visma | Lease a Bike.

“I'm not somebody who's super driven by a specific number or a specific race or a specific result, but I want to be somebody who's consistently animating the biggest races,” the Canadian insists. “I want to be someone who's consistently up there fighting for stages, fighting to support teammates, always showing myself really well. That's what I want for my career. And then at the end, I want to look back and feel that I achieved everything I could have.”