When EF Education-Cannondale announced plans for their new team in 2024, Veronica Ewers was the first big-time rider under contract. Racing with a US Continental licence, the squad has since added 13 more riders, including US Pro criterium champion Coryn Labecki, Pan-Am ITT winner Kristen Faulkner and Paris-Roubaix champion Alison Jackson.
Ewers has gone from “terrified, uncomfortable” to “excited, invigorated” in a condensed pro career of just two full seasons, taking a straight-line approach to a learning curve with overall top 10s at both the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and the Giro d’Italia Donne. Last year she was fourth overall at the eight-day Italian stage race, with a runner-up finish on stage 4 to Borgo Val di Taro.
“It was my first Giro, and it was absolutely memorable. That second place, in particular, being able to share a podium with the likes of Elisa Longo Borghini [stage winner] and Annemiek van Vlueten, in her retiring year, was incredible. It was an honour to be there,” Ewers told Cyclingnews from a pre-season training camp for her new EF Education-Cannondale squad.
“The day I managed to get second was very much a reward for taking risks, just really being aggressive. So that was an awesome reward. I think the whole Giro itself just really made me so proud to be on the team I was on because we came together. And even though at that time, we knew that the team [EF Education-TIBCO-SVB] would be folding.
“There was a bit of back and forth in the rest of the race between fourth and fifth, myself and Erica Magnaldi with UAE. My team just really did an amazing job on the last day for me to be able to snag fourth, by one second because of the bonus sprint. It was pretty incredible.”
Ewers is excited for a reboot for the EF Continental squad with new teammates and a role as a GC leader, something she never had on her bucket list just a few years ago. She has a two-year contract, good health – healed from a broken collarbone suffered just before the Tourmalet stage of the Tour de France Femmes – and fresh goals for 2024. She just needs the Continental squad to secure wildcard entries into the Grand Tours to check off more goals.
“Yeah, I think the first half of the season I’ll be aiming for one of the Ardennes races, particularly Flèche Wallonne. And then yeah, I’m looking ahead to the Giro and the Tour, they are the big ones for me. And I definitely am very interested in Worlds this year as well, in Zurich. I think…
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