Veronica Ewers is the first big signing to the new women’s team EF Education-Cannondale, set to launch with a Continental licence in 2024. The US-based outfit has since announced four additional riders including Coryn Labecki, Nina Kessler, Noemi Rüegg and Megan Armitage, along with its general manager Esra Tromp.
Ewers was the only rider on the current EF Education-TIBCO-SVB team under contract through 2025, however, that programme’s future is at risk since the loss of long-time sponsors TIBCO and Silicon Valley Bank, due to “recent economic challenges and events”.
“I’m very much still growing and developing as a rider but I imagine next year I’ll be a race leader at times, especially when it comes to the Grand Tours. I’m hoping to also have more opportunities to work on being a support rider for my teammates on other days,” said Ewers, who has signed a two-year contract with the new outfit.
Ewers joined the professional peloton as a trainee in 2021 and has spent the previous two-and-half seasons under contract with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB. During that time, she has risen to become one of the peloton’s prominent riders at one-day and stage races, finishing ninth at the Tour de France Femmes in 2022 and fourth at the Giro d’Italia Donne in July.
She was forced to abandon this year’s edition of the Tour de France Femmes following a crash on stage 6 into Blagnac.
The team also announced the signing of Rüegg and Labecki from Jumbo-Visma. Rüegg is a former cyclocross racer who turned to professional road racing in 2020. She aimed to take the next step in her career with EF Education-Cannondale in the Spring Classics.
“I really like the classics. I am quite a punchy rider, so those races suit me really well. I like it when it gets hectic in the bunch and you have to be well positioned, as it is just going up and down all day and over the cobbles,” said Rüegg, who will stay with the team through 2025.
“You have to know when you have to be where. Anything can happen in those races and nobody knows how they are going to unfold. I think that makes it really exciting.”
After two years at Jumbo-Visma, Labecki will look to lead the new team in one-day races as well as opportunities on any punchy courses at stage races. Labecki is the reigning US criterium champion, one of her 73 national titles. She won the overall title at the Women’s Tour and is the only US rider to have won the Tour of Flanders.
“I would do anything for my teammates. I always stand…
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