EF Education-EasyPost welcomes former Lotto pro as part of post-Carapaz transition period: 'Go the extra mile'

It wasn’t a given that Elijzen would return to the sport. “It’s pretty crazy, actually,” he laughs. “A month and a half ago, I got a call from Charly Wegelius [former Sports Director at EF], whom I still knew from when we rode for Lotto. We both became team managers around the same time, and we’ve always stayed in touch. And a few months ago, he called me to ask if I might be interested.”

When he retired, Elijzen became a behavioural coach, far removed from the sport. “I made a very conscious decision to step away from cycling because I really didn’t find it fun or special anymore. We had a lot of success with Sunweb in the 2020 Tour de France—we won three stages—but all I could think was, ‘I don’t enjoy it anymore; I want to go home.’ And the sport was too much fun to stop enjoying it.”

And he really liked his new job. “I have a great life; I have a really fun job with a nice structure. I genuinely really enjoy an office job, too. I don’t open my laptop in the evenings anymore, and I have weekends off. Coming from a sport like cycling, where I felt I had to be available 24 hours a day, this is quite a relief.”

But he started to get the itch again, especially after that phone call from his buddy Wegelius. And suddenly, things moved very quickly. Now, at 44, Elijzen believes he still has a lot to offer. “When you’re 28 and just getting into that world, you have a completely different perspective, completely different drives and motivations than what I have now. It really is a world of difference.”

The fact that Wegelius himself left for Tudor was a bit of a bummer. “Five years ago, that would have really upset me. You brought me in, and then you leave yourself? Jerk. That’s how I would have felt five years ago. Now I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is just part of the way the world works. I’ve noticed that I’m much more relaxed about it than I’ve ever been. That’s something I missed in recent years when I was a team director myself.”

Elijzen isn’t joining a team at EF Education-EasyPost that’s really at the top of its game. But he’s fine with that, and something he is quite used to.

“Rabobank stopped sponsoring the team three days after I signed my contract there. It became Blanco, and I thought that first year was fantastic. Everyone was out of their comfort zone, and everyone has to go the extra mile to bring in new sponsors. That really suits me. And EF is also going through a transition period.”

The American team said goodbye to team leader Richard Carapaz, but also saw Michael Valgren, Markel Beloki, Georg Steinhauser, Madis Mihkels, and others leave. Now, the team is relying primarily on a new, young generation. “That has a certain appeal compared to teams that are very successful or well-structured, where everything is already in place and you’re just a cog in the machine rather than someone who adds value,” Elijzen concludes.