EF Education - EasyPost keeps can't stop signing top talents and snatches a third one - this time a UAE-star
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Follow us on GoogleEF Education-EasyPost did not release much in terms of incoming transfers for 2026 until now, but Jonathan Vaughters' team put an end to that on Tuesday. With Luke Lamperti, the American team directly recruits a rider who is important for the sponsors for the coming seasons. Quickly after, the team announced the arrival of Canadian talent Michael Leonard from INEOS Grenadiers and Matthias Schwarzbacher from UAE Team Emirates - XRG.
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“I am really excited to join the team,” Luke says. “I already know quite a lot of the guys and am looking forward to joining a nice group and seeing what the next years bring. It feels like I am coming home. It’s an American team. Obviously, cycling isn't massive in the US, so it is pretty special to be able to join an American WorldTour team as an American rider.”
“Where I grew up, in Sonoma County, there is just amazing riding,” Luke says. “I fell in love with riding there, being out and always striving to be better. Having goals drove me forward. It went quite fast, and I ended up where I'm at now.”
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Lamperti loves Flemish classics
“I would say I'm a sprinter, but not a pure sprinter,” Luke says. “I am more of a punchy sprinter who can do well in the classics and then sprints, where there are fewer guys. There are races like Sanremo, where I would really like to do well. Grand tour stages are also something I'd like to go for more in the future.”
“I love the thrill from the start to the finish of the classics,” he says when talking about the classics. “No matter if it's 200 kilometers to go or two kilometers to go, you always have excitement. I really like the full day of excitement and full gas racing and positioning for the cobbled climbs. The fans and cycling culture in Belgium are also super nice.”
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Vaughters sees road captain in Lamperti
''Luke is a great sprinter and a great classics rider who knows how to do a lead out,” says EF Pro Cycling founder and CEO Jonathan Vaughters. “He is a real leader, especially for a guy who is as young as he is. He can already be a road captain, even though he is 22 years old. He has a great ability to lead a group of people on the road, and he knows how to read race tactics incredibly well. He's going to be one of our go-to classics guys in the cobbled races.''
''And he is going to be a sprinter that we use quite a bit. I also think he's going to be a great mentor for Noah Hobbs, our superstar U23 sprinter that we're bringing on. Doing a grand tour this year along with a heavy schedule like Luke did should set him up for success this coming year. I could see him winning a race like Gent Wevelgem. If you really want to dream: Milano-Sanremo. Luke is good in highly technical, highly tactical races.”
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Leonard opts for EF move: 'A unique identity'
Not only Lamperti will join EF Education - EasyPost. Michael Leonard, too, has opted for a move to the team of Jonathan Vaughters. The 21-year old Canadian spent the last 3 seasons at INEOS Grenadiers, but will now go for his chances at the American Squad. "This team has a unique identity", he says on the website of his new team. "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."
Leonard is known as an excellent time trialist, but now he also wants to show himself in the big classics, as well as the Grand Tours. Vaughters sees a lot of potential in the young rider. "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."
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Schwarzbacher third young signing for EF
2 big young talents arriving, that would be the end of it, right? Wrong. The American team also achieved the signing of Matthias Schwarzbacher. The 19 year old Slovak rider had a contract with the development team of UAE Team Emirates - XRG, and was known as one of its biggest talents. He came in 6th on the Velodrom in Paris-Roubaix for the under 23s, and won the opening time trail in the Giro Next Gen.
With the elite team, he finished 8th in the Trofeo Ses Salines. Plenty of talent! "Until this year, I would have described myself as a punchy rider, and maybe even someone with a strong sprint, but this season I’ve performed well in the time trials, too", Schwarzbacher said on the website of his new team. "That’s been a bit of a surprise for me, but I still think that I can perform on various terrains."
"Matthias can really impress in those short time trials, but he’s also a super versatile rider", Vaughters analyses. "He’s extremely strong on the flats and is a very effective sprinter, and he was already on my radar before he won at the Giro this year. I can see him as being both an invaluable lead-out rider, an incredible time trialist, but also having this dream of competing in those Paris-Roubaix or Gent-Wevelgem style of races."
Tom van der Salm (27) comes from the charming town of Zeilberg (Deurne) in the Netherlands and has been working as editor-in-chief & journalist at IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, In de Leiderstrui, since 2019. He travels with the peloton from the Tour de France to the AlUla Tour and from the World Championships in Rwanda or Canada to the Zilvermeercross in Mol. In his spare time he enjoys playing football, mountain biking, running, walking with his Labrador/Stabyhoun, investing, holidays, (specialty) beers, reading, cooking and watching sports & documentaries!
Contact: [email protected]
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