The way Carapaz and Powless drove favorites Del Toro and Van Aert to madness said it all about EF in 2025

As conspicuous as their jerseys look, EF Education-EasyPost is racing conspicuously. The American formation had mega-stunts in store this year and was able to pull off some very special performances. It caught some (very) big fish, although the total catch was not even that crazy big. So how good was 2025 for EF? In the Leader's Jersey formulates an answer.

The first win was already in January, when Marijn van den Berg hit the road in Spain in the Trofeo Ses Salines. It would end up being a mwah spring, although Neilson Powless' mega stunt in Dwars door Vlaanderen is still on many people's minds. The American managed to outsmart Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson and Tiesj Benoot in a one-on-three situation.

In spring, Ben Healy's third place in Liege-Bastogne-Liège and Madis Mihkels' third place in Bruges-De Panne gave him two nice podium finishes, and Healy's fourth place in Strade Bianche and Powless' fourth place in Eschborn-Frankfurt were also good. Alex Baudin came closest to a win with his second place in the Japan Cup Road Race.

There were two other wins to admire in the one-day events, though. Powless won the tricky final of the GP Gippingen ahead of Thibau Nys, while Mihkels became Estonia's first national road champion. Other than that, it was just places of honor, so four wins in one-day races for a team like EF are a bit meager.

Vaughters' formation had very high peaks in the tour. For a long time Carapaz seemed to have good prospects of winning the Giro d'Italia, but now we all know how Simon Yates managed to pull off a coup in stage twenty. The way Carapaz drove young Isaac Del Toro to madness and dared to lose the Giro told it all.

In that way, EF was almost always there when there was an attack and when the game was being played for wins. In that same Giro, the team won two stages with Kasper Asgreen and Carapaz and the climber from Ecuador ended up third in the final classification. The other immense peak came in the Tour de France.

Healy, who already showed good legs in the spring with a win in the Basque Country, managed to win stage six in characteristic fashion. After another long day on the attack, the Irishman managed to take yellow on day ten, a jersey he wore for two. In the end, Healy finished ninth in Paris. His way of racing will also have caused smiles at the sponsor's headquarters.

Here we do speak of the big outliers, something that is also not surprising with the selection EF had on paper in 2025. Purely in terms of results, it wasn't much for the pink shirts in the stage races. Vincenzo Albanese did win at WorldTour level in the Tour of Switzerland, but otherwise the team had to make do with a victory by Van den Berg in the Route d'Occitanie. That brings the team to a total of ten wins.

Well, what grade do you give a season like this? The (ex-)editors of In de Leiderste jersey did not all agree. In any case, the high points were enormous, although ten victories is still poor. At the bottom, then, there ends up being a nice 7.4.

EF has not been that very active in the transfer market so far, which means that the future of many riders is still unclear. There is no word yet on where Carapaz will ride next year, while names such as James Shaw, Jardi van der Lee, Darren Rafferty, Nerurkar, Hugh Carty and Jefferson Cepeda are also still unclear.

In any case, Ouwain Doull chose Visma | Lease a Bike, Rui Costa is hanging up his bike. As new riders, the American team can count on a lot of young guys. The team attracted Mattia Agostinacchio, the 18-year-old Italian who became European Under-23 champion this weekend.

With 22-year old Luke Lamperti, 21-year old Michael Leonard and 19-year old Matthias Schwarzbacher, it mainly brings in riders with an eye on the future. This was already clear earlier as the team also transferred the talented Noah Hobbs to the A team. Thus EF's roster for next year only stands at 22 riders and it is thus to be hoped for the team (and also for the riders!) that more clarity will come soon.

Transfers in: Mattia Agostinacchio (Ciclistica Trevigliese), Luke Lamperti (Soudal Quick-Step), Michael Leonard (INEOS Grenadiers), Matthias Schwarzbacher (UAE Emirates Gen Z) and Noah Hobbs (in-house training team)

Transfers out: Ouwain Doull (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Rui Costa (quits)

Youth certainly seems to be the future at EF and so we are very curious to see how the pink formation's youngsters will do next year. Lamperti and Leonard have competed at the WorldTour level before, while Hobbs with a win at the Tour de l'Avenir and Schwarzbacher with a win at the Giro Next Gen have already shown some nice things at the rookie level.

The team had youngsters anyway, as Mihkels is still 22 and Colby Simmons - indeed brother of - is still 22. For 24-year-old Georg Steinhauser, it is to be hoped that he will find his Giro 2024 legs again, as the German showed then with a stage victory that he can go up with the very best.

Recruit Agostinacchio is still only eighteen, so it will be interesting to see where EF will line up the very young Italian. Furthermore, Marcel Beloki's development will be interesting to follow, as the Spanish talent already showed excellent things in this year's Vuelta a España, his first major tour.