Esteban came to cycling through duathlon as a young teenager. His dad registered him for the race and lent him a bike. For Esteban, it was love at first ride. He bought a bike shortly thereafter and hasn’t looked back. Today, the Colombian is one of the most respected climbers in the peloton. His racing victories include the Colombian road national championship, Il Lombardia, the Giro dell’Emilia, three Giro d’Italia stages, two Vuelta a España stages, and a stage at the 2021 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya.

While his results are impressive, Esteban has overcome hardships in his career. As a 22-year-old, he had a crash that nearly ended his career before he even signed his first WorldTour contract. Then in 2018, he was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus and chronic sinusitis. Throughout it all, Esteban maintained his warrior spirit and his signature smile.

Riding is about more than racing and achieving results for the Colombian who has been a pro for over a decade. In 2016, he began FUN Chaves, an organization that uses bikes as tools to help children in Colombia realize their dreams. For him, his career as a professional cyclist is proof that dreams do come true and he hopes to inspire others to follow their passions.

Jardi van der Lee made his WorldTour debut with EF Education-EasyPost in 2024. Turning pro was a dream come true for him and he was determined to make the most of his chance.

The year before, the Dutch talent was working in a supermarket to fund his racing adventures in the Dutch peloton. A number of breakthrough results caught our scouts’ eyes, including a fourth-place at the Orlen Nations Grand Prix. We gave Jardi a shot and he fit right in, riding a strong rookie season in support of his teammates. He was an eager newcomer, always willing to learn and pull on the front of the peloton.

From the Tour Down Under to Paris-Roubaix to the Tour de Kyushu in Japan, Jardi soaked in all of the knowledge and experience he could, so he could apply it to his future goals.

Jardi knows he has got the power to climb with the best in the biggest races. He is one of the top e-racers on the planet. He took up the game during Covid, when all of the local road races that he had been doing since he was a little kid were canceled. Almost no one on the internet could match his watts.

There is a lot more to bike racing than power however. Jardi is learning fast and ready to make his second pro season on the road his best yet. With his talent and work ethic, there’s no limit to what Jardi might achieve.

Lukas embarks upon his second professional season with the added benefit of the experience and wisdom he gained in 2024. He won his first race with the team at the Tour de Kyushu Kokura Castle Criterium and later that same week, finished second on GC at the Tour de Kyushu. Now that his rookie year is behind him, Lukas can’t wait to go all in for 2025.

Before he had turned professional, he had already won stages of the Giro Next Gen and Orlen Nations GrandPrix and finished sixth on GC at Spain’s O Gran Camiño, all as a U23 racer.

Racing runs in his genes. Bike racing was never the obvious choice for Lukas however. He grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where his dad – Olympic marathon and 10,000 meter runner Richard Nerurkar – moved their family after he had hung up his racing flats. He’d always trained in Africa and loved the atmosphere. Lukas’s mom Gail was a runner too. His sister Almi was soon bounding in their footsteps. She became a runner as well. But as soon as Lukas started riding bikes, he knew that cycling was the sport for him. When he was a kid, he and his dad would escape Addis Ababa’s clogged streets and ride up into the hills above the city.

Lukas just loved going farther and faster.

He has been doing that ever since. When he was seven, Lukas’s family moved back to England and settled in Brighton, where Lukas started racing with the Preston Park Cycling Club. He stayed with this local team all the way through the youth categories. By the time he was 16, he was ready to step up. He joined VC Londres in London and soon caught the eye of the racers in the club, who introduced him to Trinity, a British Continental team. There his talent blossomed. Lukas has made a name for himself on the under-23 circuit racing all across Europe.

A punchy climber, he is confident that he has what it takes to compete with the best. O Gran Camiño proved that. But Lukas knows that he still has a lot to learn. He will stay humble, but never lose his competitive fire. After all, he is Girona’s town-sign sprint and chess champion.

Nineteen-year-old Markel Beloki returns to EF Education-EasyPost for his second professional season. Last year, his calendar was a mix of one-day and stage races, designed to give the youngster exposure to WorldTour racing.

Still growing into his talents, Markel was an accomplished junior racer who won five of Spain’s biggest junior races, including the national time trial championships.

Long term, Markel’s dream is to be a three-week racer. He has believed that he can compete in races like the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a España ever since he dropped his dad on their favorite climb, the Zaldiaran, just outside his hometown, Vitoria-Gasteiz. Markel’s dad is the Basque cycling legend Joseba Beloki, who finished on the podium of the Tour de France three times.

Markel is too young to remember watching his dad race. He was two when his father hung up his racing bike. Markel has only seen his dad's famous attacks on YouTube. But, as soon as Markel was old enough to ride, his dad would take him out into the hills of the Basque Country. There was never any pressure on Markel to race. He just loved it. At first, he liked beating his friends to the tops of local mountains. When he was 12, Markel joined a local club and started racing for real. He often rode with his dad, who taught him how to be a cyclist.

Now, Markel hopes to eclipse him.

He doesn’t want to get ahead of himself though. He is going to stay in school, doing his studies online, and just focus on getting better day by day on his bike.

Max Walker is raring to go for his first pro season with EF Education-EasyPost. The soft-spoken 23-year-old from the Isle of Man pushed hard to earn his spot on our team. Second in the British national time trial championships last summer, and third in the corresponding road race a few days later, he caught our scouts’ eyes. 

They saw a versatile talent, who had already shown that he has what it takes to go up against the pros. Max raced the Volta ao Algarve last February, rubbing shoulders with WorldTour riders in his first pro-level stage race, before going on to win two stages in the Tour of Japan, a stage victory in the Sibiu Cycling Tour, and securing his two podium places at the British nationals.

This year, Max wants to continue to develop as a racer. He is set to become a key rider for us in the classics and a valuable teammate in stage races. He also wants to hone his time trial skills.

Long term, Max’s great dream is to ride the Tour. He got into the sport at Dot Tilbury’s racing league on the Isle of Man when he was a child and heard all of the stories of Manx legends like Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh racing in the big leagues; the Tour is the biggest race of them all.

To get there, Max has moved to Europe to be closer to his teammates. He is already great friends with our Girona crew and riders who live in Andorra and is looking forward to lots of rides with them in the sun. It’s another journey for the British rider but one that he thinks will help him flourish within the team.

Yuhi Todome grew up watching the Tour de France from his home city of Tokyo, Japan. Last year, he took a big step towards realizing his dream of riding the race himself, as he turned pro with EF Education-EasyPost.

Yuhi raced hard from the start to the end of the year, helping his teammates in some of the biggest one-day classics and week-long stage races, before ending his season at home at the Japan Cup.

Yuhi is a talented climber, who spent two seasons racing for our development team. He is a former U23 time trial national champion, who in 2022 won the King of the Mountains competition at the Tour de Hokkaido while helping a teammate win the race overall.

Always quick with a laugh and a smile, Yuhi brings his positive attitude to our team as well as an eagerness to learn. This year, he wants to continue being a great teammate and keep working hard to discover his full potential.

No matter what, Yuhi always does his best and tries to make his friends and family proud. He took a big risk to try to become a bike racer, taking a leave of absence from law school, and now he wants to make it count.