The 23-year-old is embarking upon her third professional season as a bike racer and is just getting warmed up. Nina is a budding classics rider and she loves a hard day of racing in challenging weather conditions. Her primary goal for 2025 is to learn and grow as a rider, but she also hopes to play a role in the squad’s classics campaign.

Nina has earned a handful of top-tens in her first two seasons and is keen to continue developing. She loves to race aggressively and relishes a chance to spend the day in the break.

Nina has many fond memories of spending the summer with her family in their camper van as they followed the men’s edition of the Tour de France. That’s where she first got the idea to ride - she wondered how fast she could make it up the same iconic climbs she visited while watching the Tour.

Her ideal vacation is anything to keeps her outdoors and active. She adores hiking, backpacking, and bikepacking. Nina is currently in her second year of studying for her bachelor’s degree in psychology, so vacation time is admittedly limited these days!

Whatever you picture when you think of an accountant, you’re probably not imagining Nina Kessler. Yet she earned her undergraduate degree in business economics and enjoyed her years in accounting before she made the leap to becoming a professional cyclist, although – luckily for us – she doesn’t plan to return to bookkeeping anytime soon.

Nina began cycling as a child. She used to ride with a club near her house and when she got a pink bike as a seven-year-old, that sealed her love for the sport. She branched out from road cycling and raced mountain bikes and on the track, but when she felt she was spread too thin across so many disciplines to reach her potential, Nina chose to focus on road racing.

The Dutchwoman is an experienced sprinter, though these days she often prefers to be a road captain. She has over 500 days of road racing experience and has learned a thing or two as a result. She prides herself on being able to accurately read a race situation and guiding her teammates through the finals of a race.

Away from the racing season, you’ll still find Nina surrounded by cycling. Not only does she compete recreationally in beach races in the winter – think mountain bikes with big tires and low pressure racing along the Dutch coastline – her parents are soigneurs in the Netherlands and her siblings are big fans of the sport. In fact, they are her biggest supporters.

Letizia is one of the most consistent riders in the peloton. In 2024, she racked up over a dozen top-ten results and helped control the peloton in order to allow teammate Clara Emond to escape and win a Giro d’Italia stage. Letizia’s biggest result to date is her 2019 stage win at the Giro d’Italia where she spent the day in the breakaway before sprinting to the stage win.

Riding bikes is almost a requirement to be in the Borghesi family. Letizia and her younger sister grew up hearing stories from her dad about his wins as a U23 racer and Letizia thought to herself, “I could do that.” She started racing as a 12-year-old and hasn’t looked back. Her parents still love to ride and you’ll often find them – and her dogs – at Letizia’s races, having driven their camper van from their family home in Italy to support their daughter.

Hailing from the mountains of northern Italy, Letizia is happiest when she is outside. She adores her home region of Trentino and you can often find her hiking to the nearby lakes when she’s not training on the road. She earned the silver medal in the 2022 Italian gravel national championships, her first ever gravel race, and has since also raced the gravel world championships. In the off season, Letizia enjoys competing in the local cyclocross races and was second in the 2024 Italian CX national championship. Given her experience in cyclocross, it’s not a surprise that her favorite races are the cobbled classics because she loves the steep climbs and is used to the harsh weather conditions.

Letizia completed her bachelor’s degree in sports science and she is currently studying for her master’s degree in biology/nutrition.

Every time the peloton hits a climb, Archie Ryan wants to put on a show. The Irishman burst into the pro peloton with a stage win at Coppi e Bartali in his first WorldTour season. An explosive finisher, who loves to be the life of the party in the final kilometres of a race, he is looking to build on his rookie year success in 2025 and go for more big wins.

As an under-23, Archie beat WorldTour competition uphill, when he won a mountain stage at the Tour of Slovakia, and earned victories at the Coppa Citta' Di San Daniele and a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir, as well as second places at the U23 version of Il Lombardia and the Eurode Omloop.

For his second WorldTour season, he has got his sights set on the Ardennes classics and would love to go to his first grand tour to show what he can do against the best climbers in the world in the high mountains.

At the moment, Archie lives in Girona, where enjoys the sunny Catalan weather, smooth roads, and a great group of training buddies. But, for Archie, Ireland will always be home. His favorite roads run through hills around Wicklow, on the windblown coast by the Irish sea. That’s where he first learned to ride and still returns to ride whenever he can and where the whole cycling community will toast Archie Ryan when he wins.

Ben Healy is one of the best young bike racers of his generation. Born and raised near Birmingham, the 24-year-old is proud of his Irish roots and honored to wear the Bratach na hÉireann stripes on his sleeve as a former Irish road race national champion.

The 2023 season was Ben’s breakout year. After winning the GP Industria & Artigianato and a stage at Coppi e Bartali, he finished second at Brabantse Pijl and second at the Amstel Gold Race. And then he went and won a stage at the Giro d'Italia with a 50-km solo. Ben followed this up in 2024 with a stage win at the Tour of Slovenia and an inspired Tour de France which saw him climb like never before in service of his teammates.

Results like that are a testament to his tenacity.

Ben blazed his own way to the pro ranks. He was riding at his local track by the time he was five years old. Growing up, he was there every Sunday morning to train and race. But his first love was mountain biking. That meant hucking himself off the established track for a young bike racer in Britain. Ben dropped out of the academy and decided to go it alone.

Racing mountain bikes and road bikes on smaller teams, he soon had stage wins at the Giro Ciclistico d’Italia and the Ronde de l’Isard to his name, as well as Irish road and time trial championship titles. In 2019, Ben became the youngest ever winner of a stage at the Tour de l’Avenir.

And now, he has shown that he can go toe-to-toe with the best in the world in the sport’s greatest races.

Ben loves getting in breakaways and surprising his rivals with his daring attacks. He is as aero as anyone in the peloton and is always looking for the latest edge.

Away from the races, Ben likes big cities and hanging out with his friends from art school. He splits his time between Andorra and Girona.

He is an explosive climber, who wants to find out what he can do over the course of a grand tour. So does the rest of the world. The only thing that’s for certain is that Ben Healy is going to keep racing his own way.

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.

Michael Valgren returned to the WorldTour in a big way in 2024. In his first grand tour back after a career-threatening injury, he put in a powerful performance at the Giro d’Italia, finishing second and fourth on stages and riding strong for the whole three weeks. This year, he wants to continue on that trajectory and get back to his winning ways. This is his fifth year on our team and Michael’s 11th year as a pro.

Michael already has eight pro wins to his name, including Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Amstel Gold Race.The races he loves most are the classics. Michael shines on the cobbles and on short, punchy climbs.

He grew up in Østerild, on the west coast of Denmark, and when he was a kid, he would race between towns by the North Sea, pretending that he was in the Tour de France. His favorite road is still the stretch through the dunes between the fishing villages of Klitmøller and Hanstholm, where he got started. He lives in Denmark now with his family and enjoys taking his kids out on the local roads whenever he is home.

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.

Swiss road race champion Noemi Rüegg is still discovering her strength in the sport. Last year was a breakout season for her, as she won her first professional race, the Trofeo Felanitx-Colònia de Sant Jordi, on the squad’s first-ever day of racing. She then backed up that win with another at the Swiss national championships. She went to the Paris Olympics and finished seventh in the road race, before racing the Tour and mixing it up in the sprints.

Noemi is a punchy rider who can get over hard climbs. She is still trying to find out where her limits lie.

She came to bike racing through her family. At first, her goal was simply to keep up with her brother who is five years older than her. Their dad was involved with a local cycling club and Noemi slowly grew more and more curious. When she was 13, she finished her first cyclocross race and was hooked.

She turned professional on the road as a 19-year-old, leaving her full-time job caring for disabled people in a home. She is a two-time Under-23 Swiss time trial national champion but her heart belongs to the classics. Noemi loves a tough course, the more chaotic, the better. She is not afraid to be aggressive in the peloton and loves the excitement and energy of a hectic race.

Her ultimate goals are to podium in one of the classics and to develop as a stage racer. This year could be hers.

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.

Portuguese veteran Rui Costa brings a wealth of experience and racing savvy to EF Education-EasyPost. The former world champion and three-time Tour de France stage winner is a great mentor for our younger riders. With his cool head and tactical wits, he helps them understand how to turn opportunities into victories on the road.

Last season, Rui won the Portuguese road race national title for the second time in his career, ten years after he first won it, a testament to the longevity of his career. He is a former winner of the Japan Cup, and has also won a stage of the Vuelta España, as well as a stage and the general classification at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. In total, Rui has crossed finish lines first 32 times during his 18-year career.

It all started when he was a kid, heading out for his first rides with his dad, who was also a cyclist, near their hometown of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal. That’s where Rui first learned the tricks that brought him success in the biggest races, including his rainbow stripes of world champion’s jersey.

Nowadays, Rui still lives in Portugal, with his wife who is from the island of Madeira. That’s where Rui and his family like to head when they have time to relax. Rui brings his bike and goes training on the quiet roads through the semi-tropical forest by the seaside. He is grateful that he has had the chance to make his living doing the sport he loves most.

Always a fierce competitor, he is excited to do his favorite thing of all this year: win bike races.

After an active childhood, Sarah began racing triathlons as a university student just to try something new and was soon invited to a talent ID camp by that Australian Institute of Sport. She knew she had the engine to race with the best in the world so she didn’t let injuries or setbacks keep her from achieving her dream of becoming a professional athlete.

Today, Sarah is a seasoned veteran of the peloton and a mentor to her newer teammates. She won the Australian road national championship title in 2021 and has also earned wins at the Simac Ladies Tour, GP Cham-Hagendorn, the Tour of Britain Women, Geraardsbergen-Gooik, Navarra Elite Classics, and the Bretagne Ladies Tour.

In 2025, Sarah is excited to bring her knowledge and experience to the spring classics. She loves the intense mental focus that the classics demand and the physicality of holding her line on the punchy cobbled sectors.

Sarah still loves to try new things. Growing up in Sydney means she is well versed in warm weather sports but she is eager to try out speed skating, cross-country skiing, and alpine skiing. Learning remains a passion of hers. She earned her undergraduate degree in sports science and is currently working on her masters degree in clinical physiology.