Gallery: Our new Giro d'Italia kit

Merhawi Kudus got his start in cycling when he was 14. His first race was with his school mountain-biking team, back in Asmara, the Eritrean capital where he was born and raised. He eventually transitioned to road racing and moved to Europe to turn pro. Merhawi is a gifted climber, whose results include an overall win at the Tour du Rwanda. He loves riding in the mountains around his home in Andorra. It’s always extra special when his country-people come out to the races to cheer him on.

Simon Carr was raised in the shadow of the Pyrénées in the south of France. His Welsh parents had moved there when he was a small child, so he would have the chance to spend his youth in the countryside. He started cycling on an old mountain-bike they had lying around their home and did his first races at his French public school. His family spoke English at home, but otherwise Simon’s upbringing was French.

He wasn’t very good at trials or downhill at first, but did very well in endurance cross-country. Soon, the nearby mountains lured him onto the road and he joined a local club. He wanted to dance up cols in the Tour de France.

After some great results as a junior, Simon made the move to the World Tour with EF Education-Easypost in 2021. He finished his first grand tour, the Giro; won the young rider’s classification at his home stage race, the Tour de Occitanie; and had a great ride at the Strade Bianche, where he finished 11th. Our young French-British climber hopes to win grand-tour mountain stages and classics such as Liêge-Bastogne-Liêge.

This year marks Jonathan’s fourth season with the team. The former road and time-trial national champion of Ecuador, Jonathan has been riding bikes since he was five-years-old. He is an optimist and tells himself positive affirmations like “I can do this” and “let’s go” when the racing gets tough. He spends the off-season at home in Tulcan, Ecuador and given that it sits at an altitude of 2,980 meters, it’s no wonder that he loves the mountains. His favorite ride takes him westward through the scenic Lagunas Verdes to Volcán Chiles near the Colombian border.

Given Jonathan’s aptitude for climbs, it should be no surprise that his first WorldTour win was atop Mt. Etna in the 2020 Giro d’Italia.

Owain is one of just two Welsh speakers in the peloton and became the first Welsh-speaking athlete to win a gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

While he loves to explore new places on long rides, his favorite place to ride is in the Peak District — preferably on a sunny day. For Owain, setting goals and giving his all in their pursuit is deeply satisfying. In the moment that a race kicks it up a notch, he finds motivation in reminding himself that the outcome will be worth the effort. Owain, the runner-up in the 2019 edition of Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, loves racing the Classics and Grand Tours. When Owain is not on his bike, you’ll find him overseeing 5 Rings, his coffee company named for the Olympic rings.

Hugh has always been a strong and consistent climber, but it was his performance in the 2019 Tour de Suisse that stamped his presence after he rode solo for 98 kilometers over three leg-breaking mountains and claimed the stage win. Since then, he won his first Grand Tour stage at the Vuelta a España, on Alto de l’Angliru no less, and finished third on the overall podium.

He got his start on the bike as a seven-year-old when he used to ride with his dad. Five years later, Hugh stormed up Mont Ventoux with his dad driving the family car behind him in support. Today Hugh’s favorite climb is Birdy Brow, a short but steep climb in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, England. Because he is able to dig so deep on the climbs, it’s only natural that he loves a good recovery ride.

Hugh speaks fluent Spanish after living in Spain and now resides in Andorra. Despite so many years abroad, he’s still British through and through. He enjoys watching snooker and The Office (the British version, of course) and after his morning coffee, he drinks milky tea all day long.

Magnus Cort is one of cycling’s most respected professionals—a ruthless finisher who can climb and time trial. His rivals know he can win on almost any terrain and will push himself to great lengths when he sees an uncrossed finish line. At the end of a long, hard race, no one in the peloton wants to sprint against Magnus.

Magnus’ competitive spirit thrust him away from home when he was only 16. He had only been racing for a few years, when he moved from Bornholm, the windswept Danish island in the Baltic Sea where he was born and raised, to the Danish mainland to try to turn pro. Now in his ninth World Tour season, Magnus’ will to win is as strong as ever. He won five races in 2021 and still dreams of winning a monument. He would love to win one of the first three stages of this year’s Tour de France, which will be raced in Denmark.

But cycling has always been about more than winning to Magnus. Ever since he was a kid, he has used his bike to explore. On Bornholm, Magnus would roam the dunes and rocky cliffs by the coast and explore the woods inland. His favourite rides are still long spins through the forest. When he has time off, Magnus will go hiking or ski touring in the mountains near his home in Andorra. This winter, Magnus climbed Kilimanjaro with his mom and dad and his brother and sister. He goes back to Bornholm whenever he can and enjoys trekking across the island. Before long, he yearns to go racing again though.

To Magnus, nothing compares to sprinting across a finish line and throwing up his arms.

Hailing from Tuta, Colombia, Diego is a natural climber. In fact, his favorite place to ride is in Alto de Letras, Colombia, a grueling leg-breaker that gains 3,800 meters of elevation in 82 kilometers.

He began riding as a five-year-old and cycling has been his passion ever since. Diego’s strength turned heads when, in 2015, he won the Vuelta a Tuta despite racing on a steel frame against a more experienced and better equipped field. He later won both the Vuelta Colombia and the Vuelta Juventud in the same year.

During the racing season, Diego calls mountainous Andorra home but his heart will always belong to Colombia. His favorite part of being a bike racer is getting to meet so many people from all over the world. This is his second year in pink.