Irish champion Darren Rafferty is excited for his second season in the WorldTour. In his rookie year, he won the Irish road race title, finished his first grand tour at the Vuelta a España, and discovered a whole new realm of watts, while riding for his teammates throughout the season.

Darren is a talented climber. In the under-23 ranks, he won the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta-Mont Blanc, finished second at the Giro d'Italia Giovani Under 23, and came fifth in the U23 edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He doesn’t just fly up mountains. He is also a strong time trialist, with two Irish U23 titles to his name.

Darren’s future knows no bounds. He might become a GC contender or find that he is better suited to the hilly classics. For now, he wants to make the most of every opportunity that comes his way.

That is what he has been doing ever since he was a little kid. Darren started out racing U10 cyclocross races back in Ireland. As he got bigger and faster, cycling became more and more of a priority. In his late teens, Darren decided to go to France to race and pursue his dream of turning pro instead of accepting a place at university, where he had applied to become an accountant. It wasn’t an easy choice, but Darren’s bravery paid off, and now he has the chance to show the whole world what he can do on a bike.

He lives in Girona, where he and his tight-knit crew of WorldTour buddies train throughout the year. They get ready for the races on long group rides through the local hills, sprinting for town signs and doing their efforts on the climbs. That keeps it fun.

Once the commissaire’s flag drops, Darren is a fierce competitor.

2024 was Georg Steinhauser’s breakout year. The German talent soared to a huge stage win at the 2024 Giro d’Italia with a long solo attack in the mountains and backed it up with two third places on extremely hard stages. It was his first ever grand tour. All of Georg’s hard work is starting to pay off.

When he first joined the WorldTour, Georg combined racing with his studies, as he completed his apprenticeship to become a metal worker. In 2023, he turned his attention fully to cycling and earned some great results, including a second-place on a stage of the Tour of the Alps, third on GC at La Route d'Occitanie, and sixth at Eschborn-Frankfurt.

Still just 23, Georg has a long career ahead of him. At the Giro, Georg proved that he is a world class climber with the staying power to make a long breakaway stick. He is also working on his time trial and last year placed fourth at the German championships and fifth in the prologue at the Tour of Romandie. Long term, he would like to develop into a GC contender, but is also well-suited to one-day races like the Ardennes classics.

When he’s not away racing, Georg loves riding around his hometown of Scheidegg, in the Bavarian mountains near the Lake of Constance. He is also a keen skier.

James Shaw loves the places that his bike has taken him, the people he has met because of cycling, and the life lessons he’s learned through the sport. But what does he love most about cycling? Racing.

With three grand tours now in his legs, the 28-year-old British climber is gunning for a great 2025. He’ll take every chance he can get to show what he can do on the sport’s biggest stage. James’s journey to the top hasn’t been easy. After his first few years as a pro, he couldn’t find a contract and had to go back to the sport’s second division. He considered quitting to become a train conductor, but with the support of his family and friends, James stuck with it and earned another shot in the big leagues after a number of strong stage race performances. Since joining our team in 2022, he has evolved into a loyal super domestique, who can get over the hardest climbs to help his teammates. Always willing to pull, he hasn’t pushed his own ambitions aside.

James earned his best results so far out of breaks at the 2023 Tour de France, where he finished fifth and seventh on tough mountain stages. When he gets his chance, he goes all in.

Through the year, he lives in England’s Peak District. When he is home, James resets by taking his dogs for long walks on the moors and riding with old clubmates. His racing and training schedule is very busy, but whenever he has time, James hitches a trailer to his bike and goes bike packing. He also enjoys riding motorbikes and going off-roading in the old 4x4 that he refurbished.

In his first year in EF Education-EasyPost pink, Danish classics star Kasper Asgreen wants to add to his impressive list of victories, which already includes the Ronde van Vlaanderen, E3 SaxoBank Classic, and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, as well as a stage at the Tour de France and four Danish time-trial titles. He joined our team because he was impressed with our squad’s attacking style.

That’s how Kasper loves to race, too – when the peloton explodes, and he has to make split-second decisions on the fly, pick his moment to go, and then ride with everything he has got to the line, he comes into his own. That’s why he loves the spring classics. Kasper can’t wait to lead his new teammates onto the cobbles at races like Flanders and Roubaix.

He learned how to race when he was a kid in Denmark, where he started out riding for the local club in Kolding, the small university city where he now lives with his wife and which he will always call home. Before he took up cycling, Kasper rode horses. From the age of four, he competed in dressage. He still draws on his childhood equestrian experience now as a pro bike racer. It taught him discipline: the value of showing up and putting in the work no matter what.

Bike racing was tough for him at first. Kasper didn’t win a race for his first three years. He loved the sport nonetheless and was soon making fast progress. Now, he is one of the best one-day racers in the world.

Still, Kasper’s love of the sport is what drives him. Being a pro comes with pressures and hard times, but he knows that it is a privilege to be a bike racer. He races better when he is enjoying the sport, and he enjoys the sport most on a winning team.

Mikkel Honoré loves to light up races in EF Education-EasyPost pink. The Dane is a very versatile rider. He has the horsepower and skill to shepherd our GC captains through a racing peloton during the hardest grand tour stages. A great climber with a strong finishing kick, who can hold his own on the cobbles, Mikkel has sprinted to stage victories at the Tour of the Basque Country and Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali—two of the hilliest stage races on the calendar. He is consistently at the front of the biggest races and always ready to do his turn for his teammates. We count on Mikkel to be there for us at crucial moments in grand tours and attack the finales of the great one-day races. He’ll go for more victories himself.

Mikkel lives in Switzerland, near the shores of Lake Como. He loves to travel and always has a book with him on the bus. Reading takes him away from the bubble of racing and training. He enjoys philosophy and novels and will always read up on the places where we race to better understand the people who live in the countryside that we pass through.

Mikkel is a great basketball fan. He and his wife will go watch a game together whenever they get the chance. He is also a polyglot and enjoys learning new languages.

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. He is a passionate advocate for mental health and participates in Movember every year. He lives in Andorra.

Richard Carapaz races with grit and heart. The Giro d’Italia winner and former Olympic champion hails from the high mountains of Ecuador where he started racing as a 16-year-old for his local club. He returns there each winter to help the next generation of children from his hometown of Playa Alta get started in the sport they dream of conquering like him.

Richard has stood on the podium of all three grand tours and won over 20 professional races. When Richie wins, he wins with style. He is never afraid to attack and can sense exactly the right moment to go. That is how he won his Olympic gold medal and his Giro d’Italia.

After a difficult 2023 season, Richie proved that he was ready to attack in 2024. He started the season with a win at the Ecuadorian time trial national championship. At the Tour Colombia, he won the queen stage and took both the points and mountains jerseys. He won stage four of the Tour de Romandie. Richard had a phenomenal Tour de France, enjoying a day in the coveted yellow jersey, besting the peloton on stage 17, and winning the polka dot jersey.

And in 2025, he is more motivated than ever.