Our 2024 Tour de France squad | EF Education-EasyPost

Alberto Bettiol, Neilson Powless, Ben Healy, Marijn van den Berg, Rui Costa, Sean Quinn, Stefan Bissegger and Richard Carapaz will participate in the 2024 Grande Boucle for EF Education-EasyPost.

Every one of them is a winner. Of Great departure from Florence, Italy, to the grand finale in Nice on the French Riviera, they will light up this year’s Tour de France with attacking style, chasing stages at every opportunity. Our Tour 2024 team combines youth and experience, strength in the windswept vineyards and sunflower fields of central France, with climbers born to scale the sweltering passes of the Pyrenees and Alps. Sit down in July, because we won’t. From the first stage to the 21st stage of this year’s Tour de France, every day will be an opportunity for EF Education-EasyPost.

This is going to be an exciting summer.

Before the Tour starts in Florence, listen to our riders.

My first race in my new Italian champion jersey will take place in Florence, my hometown, at the start of the Tour. It’s going to be very, very special. The Grand Départ will be incredibly beautiful. I know the roads very well. I want to win a stage on the Tour. I’ve been close before and I know I can do it. This year is really important for me. I’m not very young anymore. I don’t have too many years left of me. Winning the Italian championship was a goal and another goal is to win a stage of the Tour de France. I have to make the most of every opportunity that presents itself. Winning in this jersey would mean a lot to me. You have to be ready and you always have to fight, because winning on the Tour is not like winning in other races. It’s doubly difficult to win a stage on the Tour, especially for a versatile player like me. I think the team is making a wise choice in going with the stages. It’s going to be fun and really exciting.

I think it’s probably the toughest year I’ve had with injuries and illness, so I’m just excited that I was able to overcome that and continue to race the Tour de France. The Nationals and the first half of the Dauphiné reassured me that I was returning to a very high level after a difficult spring. I’m leaving for the Tour with big ambitions and big goals. I really want to win a stage this year. I still haven’t received one. Winning a stage is my primary goal and I think I have the physical capabilities to do it. It’s just about doing things right on the day, following the right movements and using my energy wisely. I think everyone on the team is eager to try their luck. Each of us has something to prove. We haven’t had the smoothest spring as a team and everyone is chomping at the bit to make up for it.

The Tour is the biggest race there is and I’m really excited about it. This is a pretty important step. The first step is to compete in the WorldTour and the next is to compete in a Tour. I would love to try to win a stage. This is what I’m good at. That’s what I want to try to do. I need a pretty tough day with a rough ending. The first stage looks really good to me, but there are also a few towards the end of the second week. Since the Ardennes, I set foot in the stirrup, did altitude camps and some great races. The preparation went well for me. I’m glad we can seize our own opportunities. There will be days when I really suffer. I’m just going to go all-in on the days where I have to go all-in and keep my legs on everyone else, when our other guys are going to go for it.

Going to the Tour is something I’ve always dreamed of. When I was a kid we often went on vacation to France in July and watched the racing. We watched it in a bar or on a terrace. That’s the thing I remember the most, my brother, my dad and I would go for a lap and then go to the pool and watch the race afterwards. I would be super happy if I received a bottle from a pilot and will always be a huge fan of that pilot because of it. Now, maybe becoming the guy who does the same thing is actually a strange feeling. You watch it as a kid, it’s super special and now you’re a part of it. This shows that hard work pays off. I hope we can get some stage wins with the team. For me personally, there are a few stages that suit me, so I’ll definitely focus on those and then help the other guys on the others to put them in the best possible position to get stage wins as well. I will have my own opportunities, but I will also help the team. My friends at home who don’t have much cycling knowledge always ask me if I’ve done the Tour. Now, finally, I will be able to say yes.

It will be an honor for me to represent my country and wear the colors of Portugal on the Tour. Since I joined EF, I have always wanted to have the Portuguese flag on my EF jersey. It was one of my ambitions this year. From now on, when I wear the jersey on the Tour, I will have realized two dreams. I went through a lot after my fall this spring. I worked very hard to be in shape for the Tour and to be selected. In the end, it worked out and I’m super grateful for the selection and that the team believed in me. I will do my best to fight for a stage, fight as a team and achieve victories for the team. It’s the most important race of the year. The level of the Tour is a level that you cannot experience in any other race of the season. The team looks very strong and there are a lot of stages for us. This will be our objective, to go hunting for stages. I believe we will win. We’ll have a big one this year.

I feel like I’ve been waiting for this moment forever. So, I’m really excited. The Tour is the reason I started pursuing the dream of becoming a professional. Being selected is an achievement in itself. I think that’s probably my proudest accomplishment so far. Wearing the stars and stripes jersey is going to be sweet. This is an opportunity to represent the country on the biggest world stage. I will do my best and try to make everyone proud, because I will represent a lot of people by flying this flag. The race starts in Italy, where I have raced a lot as an amateur and I know this region very well, then it finishes in Nice, where I currently live, so it comes full circle. If I could win a stage myself, that would be pretty epic. We’ll see how many opportunities I get, because I’ll help the other guys as well. I’m just happy to be here, but the big dream would be to win a stage. For all my friends, this is the only bike race they really know about, so they’re going to be pretty excited to see me. They’ll say, “Okay, so you’re actually a real cyclist.” » My parents saw me working there for many years. They’re super excited about it. They know that they also played a big part in this journey and are really proud of me.

We are going to aim for stage victories, so I will do my best and hope to come back with a good result. I like the first TT. I would like to tell my son that I won a stage on the Tour. That’s the point. Riding is one thing, but I don’t participate just to be there. I want to perform. The Tour is such an important race. I always watched all the cycling races with my own father, but especially the Tour. We watched it almost every day. For sure, he’s super proud. The Tour is never easy. It’s also always different from what you expect. There is always tension in the peloton, and so much more media and so much more spectators. It’s much more stressful for us, the pilots. I will drink my coffee in the morning and try to be relaxed. A good coffee in the morning and everything should be fine.

I am now back, working hard and not only prepared, but excited for this Tour. The Tour is the Tour, and it’s always full of emotion. After my fall in Switzerland, I fell ill. My form will arrive late, but I will do my best for this Tour de France. My preparation before the fall was very good. The first week will be very tough, but I will try to get through it as best as possible. Winning a stage is super important. In the last editions I was very close, so winning one would be very important for me, but also for the team and everyone who has prepared for this moment. It would be the result of hard work and perseverance. Last year was difficult. I had to go home. This year we will come back to it. Everyone around me knows how much I worked for this. We have a solid and versatile team. We can win on all grounds. The Tour is the best race in the world. It creates a lot of emotion and that’s what makes it special.