Racing

It’s time for the Tour de France

We’re bringing eight riders from eight different nationalities to the world’s greatest bike race

June 29, 2022

It’s time for the Tour de France.

As French families head for the beaches of the Côte d’Azur and to campsites high in the Pyrénées and Alps, they will follow the news of their country’s summer spectacle, gathering around TV sets in sweltering bars and reading day-old newspapers or Insta-updates under their sun umbrellas. Americans will rise at dawn to watch the final kilometres of each stage, while Australians wait late into the night to see who will wear the yellow jersey. People from all over the world will camp by the side of French roads and party together long after the peloton has passed. The Tour de France now belongs to you, too. It is the vital side story to your summer holidays.

We’re excited to announce the riders for us that will star in one of summer’s classic traditions: Rigoberto Uran, Neilson Powless, Magnus Cort-Nielsen, Jonas Rutsch, Stefan Bissegger, Ruben Guerreiro, and Owain Doull will race Le Tour for EF Education-EasyPost.

For our riders, the Tour de France will be anything but a vacation. For 21 days, on a 3,328-kilometre race course, they will sweat to dizzying heights up France’s highest cols and throw themselves into mad sprints for the finish line, pushing their bodies to the limits of human endurance, as they try to win stages and pull on cycling’s greatest prize: the maillot jaune.

They are eight riders from eight different nationalities. Ever since they were little kids, they have dreamed of racing onto the Champs Elysées in Paris. We asked them about their ambitions for this year’s race and what Le Tour means to them.

Magnus Cort

"To win stages at the Tour is on a different level to anything else you can do in cycling. It means a lot just to be selected and going, especially this year when the Tour is starting in Denmark. It is probably the only race where you really count how many times you have been there and have finished. It’s not my first time going, but as a small kid, like most other Danes, I just followed the Tour on the TV during the summer holidays. I didn’t know anything about cycling, but watched the Tour every summer. It is pretty crazy to think back to that eight-year-old, myself, sitting there looking at all the bike riders, and now I am actually the one inside the television, riding the Tour de France in my home country."

Rigoberto Urán

"The best riders are here. The teams come prepared with everything, the new material, the new bikes. Everybody is focused on the Tour de France. You see the new developments. All the world is watching. The level is super high. Every stage is hard. The riders, the masseurs, the mechanics — everyone is focused and nervous for 21 days. Every second is important. It is nice. It is very different, starting in Denmark and not in France is something different, but especially here it is nice because there are many fans in Denmark. We take it day by day. It is one month. You need to stay first lucky and then healthy. You make a strategy, but must take it day by day. The most important thing is to sleep well."

Neilson Powless

"When I think about the Tour de France, I just think of the highest level of competition and just a race filled with athletes who have dedicated their lives to becoming as fit as possible and showing that along the countryside in France for the world to see. It is a pretty massive sporting event that crosses a pretty large area of space in France. It reaches a lot of people, which is really cool. The influence that it has is pretty massive, over the whole globe, which is pretty unique, and not a lot of people get to compete in an event like that, which is pretty exciting."

Alberto Bettiol

"Tour de France for me is the biggest race of the year. It is a big goal for the season. The Tour is the race where all of the teams put in the most effort. The best riders in the world are at the Tour de France, so it is a big show, so I really want to win a stage in this Tour de France. That is why I worked so hard, even if I had some trouble during the season with COVID and so on, but I am confident now after the Tour de Suisse. The team is really ambitious for the GC with the stage racers, and we will try to win a couple of stages. I worked hard for this event. I know it, because I have done it already three times, but I am really looking forward to the race."

Jonas Rutsch

"I have great memories from last year. It is the biggest bike race in the world, the one I am always looking forward to. I always hope that I will be selected, and I managed to get selected. I am just really excited to see what comes next. I love the whole history of the race, how well prepared the riders are every year, and the whole atmosphere."

Stefan Bissegger

"It feels amazing to be here after all the bad things I had in the last few weeks with COVID and having to leave the Tour de Suisse. It feels amazing to be here and be ready to race. The Tour de France is the biggest race of them all, so it is always nice to be a part of. I remember watching a mountain stage on TV and then later we went with the family to Alpe d’Huez. I’m definitely looking forward to it."

Ruben Guerreiro

"The Tour de France is the race that made me a rider. I was young and watching the Tour de France and imagined, dreamed to one day ride the Tour. It is my favorite race. I think it is the race that motivated me to be a professional rider. My ambition is now bigger. With this team I have the opportunity to ride and arrive here in the best condition and now I hope to win something. It is a big achievement, a big honor to make my dream come true. Last year was my first one. This year is my second one. Last year, I didn’t win anything, but I was there, and this year I want to win something."

Owain Doull

It’s a childhood dream. This is my first Tour, so I don’t know what to expect. Watching the Tour is my earliest memory of cycling. I think it probably means the same to every person who starts the Tour, whether it is their first or their tenth. It is the biggest race in cycling and I can’t wait to be a part of it. Even before I got into cycling, ITV used to show the Tour and I would always watch the highlights package in the evening. There is no other bike race where you know the theme tune. I remember watching that and every day they would do a round-up of how the British riders were getting on and it was in smaller numbers then. I can’t wait to get stuck into it.

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Tour de France
Jul. 01, 2022 – Jul. 24, 2022
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Rigoberto Urán

There is now a Colombian TV show about Rigoberto Urán’s life. It is about more than Olympic medals and grand tour podiums, fashion shoots, and appearances in the celebrity pages of newspapers.

Rigoberto’s dad was killed by a paramilitary group three months after he introduced Rigo to cycling. Rigo was 14. All of a sudden, he had to work to support his mom and his sister. He took over his dad’s job, selling lottery tickets to support his family, while going to school and trying to race. He still won a lot.

At 16, it was too much. Rigo told his cycling team that he would either have to turn pro or quit and go back to selling lottery tickets. Technically, he was too young to become a professional. To get around that fact, the team offered his mother the contract. Three years later, Rigo traveled to Europe for the first time to race for a small Italian team.

He has never looked back. An Olympic silver medal and podium finishes at the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France are highlights from his illustrious career. Rigo is still a contender. In 2022, he won stage 17 of the Vuelta, completing his trifecta of stage wins in each of the grand tours, and was a force in the autumn classics.

Rigo continues to inspire his teammates and a whole generation of cyclists with his laid-back, fun-loving approach to the sport.

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Stefan Bissegger

When Stefan Bissegger was ten, he signed up for a bike race in his home village in Switzerland. He just didn’t know that he needed a racing bike. The organizer, an old pro, called him and said he could borrow one. He is still Stefan’s coach.

Stefan had fun at the race. Soon he was dreaming of winning classics like Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. He was good at time-trials and long solos and wanted to become the kind of racer who could ride away from all of his rivals on the Oude Kwaremont.

After a stellar few years in the juniors, Stefan came to our team in 2020. He had a breakthrough season in 2021, with time-trial victories at Paris-Nice and the Benelux Tour and an outstanding solo stage win at his home race: the Tour de Suisse. To cap it all off, he participated in his first Olympics on the track with the Swiss team-pursuit squad.

In 2022, Stefan won the European time trial championships, the TT at the UAE Tour, and a rainbow jersey in the mixed relay at the world championships.

He had a difficult start to last season, breaking his wrist right before his favorite race of the year: Paris-Roubaix. He worked his way back into form however and won the Swiss national time-trial title.

If Stefan wasn’t a racer, he would be a bike mechanic. He likes tinkering with the set-up of his SuperSlice and testing his position until it is as aero as possible.

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Neilson Powless

When Neilson Powless started racing X-Terra triathlons with his sister back home in Northern California, he just wanted to spend time outside and rip around the trails near his house. His first love was mountain-biking. It was his best discipline in those off-road triathlons, and when he got to high-school, there were all sorts of chances for him to compete in California’s mountain-bike league. Soon, he was travelling with the US national team, racing junior world cups and championships against the world’s most talented mountain-bikers. Race in and race out, Neilson proved he was one of them.

Then he decided he wanted to have a go on the road.

Neilson has progressed steadily since he turned pro in 2018, thanks to his hard-work and diligent approach to training. In 2020, Neilson Powless became the first tribally recognized Native North American to race the Tour de France. The next year, our rising American star won Spain’s greatest one-day race, the Clásica San Sebastián, and finished fifth at the world championships in Belgium. Neilson was stellar in 2022. After a strong campaign in the Ardennes, he finished fourth on GC at the Tour de Suisse and lit up the Tour de France. He finished the year off with a victory at the Japan Cup.

The 2023 season was his best yet. Neilson won his first race of the year: the Grand Prix Cycliste de Marseille. He then won the overall at Étoile de Bèsseges and stormed the Flemish classics, finishing third at Dwars door Vlaanderen and fifth at De Ronde in his debut campaign on the cobbles. At the Tour, he captured hearts with a stellar run in the King of the Mountains jersey.

Neilson lives in Nice, France with his wife and baby girl during the racing season. He enjoys exploring their new city and relaxing on the beach after hard rides through the Alps.

If he can find time in his schedule, Neilson would like to get back to his roots, and do some off-road alternative racing in 2024.

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Owain Doull

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.

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Alberto Bettiol

Alberto Bettiol has always been a winner. He started racing around the hills of Tuscany when he was five and won his second-ever race in his hometown of Castelfiorentino. He has been bringing home bouquets of flowers ever since.

His coaches and supporters always believed in his talent. Alberto was a strong junior and U23 rider, who signed his first professional contract with our team in 2014. But Alberto wanted to become a champion. He had grown up watching the classics and the Giro d’Italia with his father, a former footballer, and dreamed of winning the sport’s greatest races.

In 2019, he won his first Monument. Alberto’s victory in the Tour of Flanders that year changed his life. It gave him the confidence that he could beat the best riders in the world. He backed it up with an impressive string of results, including a stunning solo stage victory at the 2021 Giro d’Italia.

In 2022, Alberto earned podium places on stages of the Tour de France, Tour de Suisse, and Deutschland Tour.

He now splits his time between Lugano, Switzerland and Castelfiorentino. He enjoys all of the opportunities to travel that cycling now provides him, but is always happy to return to the Tuscan hills where he got started.

Alberto started 2023 with a prologue win at the Tour Down Under, but had a tough spring set back by injury and illness and had to miss his favorite classics. He made his return with a strong ride at the Giro d’Italia. He has great ambitions for the Tour de France.

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Jonas Rutsch

Jonas Rutsch loves the Classics and is always excited when he gets to race up the Muur-Kapelmuur. The lanky German won the U23 Gent-Wevelgem and finished 11th at the 2021 Paris-Roubaix. He is a very versatile rider, who is always ready to work for his teammates.

In 2022, he even impressed in the mountains at the Tour de Suisse.

This is already Jonas’s fifth season racing with the team. He says that racing in the WorldTour had been his goal since he was a little boy, when cycling’s historic races captured his imagination. He has now finished two Tours de France and even proposed to girlfriend on the Champs-Élysées after the 2022 Tour.

In addition to racing, Jonas also finished his exams at the German police academy. While he follows a training schedule, his favorite days are when he just gets to ride his bike. Whenever he has the chance, he goes mountain biking.

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