Alastair secured his pro contract with a win on the fourth stage of the Alpes Isère Tour as well as top-class results in races such as Flèche Ardennaise and the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta - Mont Blanc. He is the 2023 Australian under-23 road and time trial champion and a consistent competitor in the world’s hardest amateur races. Making it to the WorldTour has been his goal ever since he moved to Europe when he was 19 years old.

“I'm stoked,” Alastair says. “This has been a dream of mine since I started riding as a junior. I did all four years of my time as an under-23 in Europe, trying to work towards this, so to finally make it in my last year is not only a big relief. It’s an honor. I'm super happy to have the opportunity and trust from the team.”

EF Pro Cycling founder and CEO Jonathan Vaughters sees great potential in Alastair.

“Alastair has a strong motor,” Vaughters says. “In the under-23 ranks, he has shown that he can make a break stick after a hard, hilly day of racing and he has been doing a lot of work on his time trialing. He is going to be a strong asset for us in mountainous stage races. We think he can develop into the kind of rider who can compete in the finales of the Ardennes classics. We’re really looking forward to working with him as he makes the step up to the WorldTour."

Alastair’s WorldTour ambitions were first sparked when he went to watch the Tour Down Under as a child. His dad was a cyclist and would take Alastair and his mates to see the race from the roadside.

“I was just getting into cycling and we used to ride out to the race,” Alastair says. “It’s filthy hot down there, like 40 degrees Celsius, and you'd be suffering and then you'd sit on the side of the road and wait 30 minutes for the race to come past. But when you saw the helicopter in the sky, the big peloton coming through with all the follow cars, it was like, ‘Wow, this is a big thing.’ You got your camera out and then the peloton would pass in 20 seconds, but it was like, ‘That was really cool. I want to be able to do that one day.’ From then on, the last eight years of my life, that's where I’ve wanted to be.”

Starting next year, the WorldTour is where Alastair will be. All of the work he has put in to make his dream come true has paid off.

“I've been racing Continental/Continental Pro since I was 19,” Alastair says. “I didn't start at 12 years old, going, ‘I'm going to go to the WorldTour,’ but when I moved to Girona when I had just turned 19 and saw how the pros do it and the lifestyle, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is the dream.’ The last four years have been head down, bum up, doing everything I could to get there.”

For his first WorldTour season, Alastair is going to focus on controlling what he can control and making the most of every chance he gets.

“It will be my first year as a neo-pro,” Alastair says. “I could put a lot of pressure on myself, but I think I really want to go in with a little bit of weight off my shoulders and just train hard and be physically in the best shape I can and let it come as it comes. There are going to be a lot of really important, special opportunities for me next year. When they arise, I just want to be in the best possible shape I can be and then do the best I can. I think that's all I can ask of myself for the first year. I don’t need to say I need to win a pro race in my first year, but if it does happen, it will be like, ´Wow!’”

Long term, Alastair’s great ambition is to race the Tour de France. He would also love to close the circle and compete in the WorldTour peloton at the Tour Down Under.

“It's a race I grew up watching and traveling down to and watching on the side of the road. So, if I get the opportunity to race it, that would be a really big, special, special moment for me. I did it through COVID when it was more of a national race, but never as a pro.”

After his first EF Pro Cycling Oatly Performance Camp, Alastair will return home to Australia to prepare for the year ahead. He has spent the off-season there, hanging out on the beach and rallying cars with his mates. Before the end of the Aussie summer, he’ll head back to Europe, where he now lives, just outside of Nice, France.

“I'm from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, so I grew up by the beach, surfing,” Alastair says. “Being back by the beach feels a bit more like home. The Côte d'Azur is a really special, beautiful part of the world. I moved there and almost instantly fell in love with the area. Just training on those roads with the scenery is pretty special. So many of the best pro cyclists in the world live in Monaco, so to make friends with a few of those guys and train with them is also special.”

You’re one of them now, Alastair. Welcome to EF Education-EasyPost!