AEVOLO UNDER 23 CYCLING TEAM JOINS FORCES WITH
EF PRO CYCLING FOR 2025.
June 3rd, 2024
Aevolo Under 23 Cycling Team joins forces with EF Pro Cycling for 2025.
EF Education-EasyPost and under-23 development team Aevolo Cycling are joining forces beginning in 2025. Fresh off a successful USA Cycling U23 National Championships in which Gavin Hlady won the Road Race & Criterium, Aevolo will move under the EF Pro Cycling umbrella to become the official development squad of EF Education-EasyPost.
According to Steven van der Zwan, the Team Principal of Aevolo, "This partnership is the culmination of the Aevolo Staff's commitment to become the premier North American Development Team. We look forward to providing today's and tomorrow's riders even more opportunities to grow and excel, both on and off the bike"
For EF Pro Cycling CEO Jonathan Vaughters, bringing Aevolo and EF Pro Cycling together speaks to the long-term strategy of EF Pro Cycling.
“With the success of the EF Education-Onto junior program, it made me realize that quite a few of those athletes don't necessarily have a jumping off point or a way forward to stay within the EF Pro Cycling program,” Vaughters said. “So in order to correct that, I felt like we needed an in-house U23 developmental team so that there is a direct, visible, tangible line all the way from when you’re a 14-year-old talent to becoming a WorldTour rider.”
The team will share a service course in Girona, along with other resources.
While the team has supported development teams in the past, Vaughters explained that aligning with Aevolo is a different approach.
“This is our first foray into having our own in-house, proprietary, Continental team. And Aevolo is the obvious team to do this with. It’s a sister team in the sense that they’ve been with Cannondale for quite awhile and obviously the team has done a great job. But to make that next jump in performance, they needed to have a more international program and to have a foundation with a WorldTour team. By joining forces, we’re combining resources so that we can build what will hopefully be one of the best, if not the best, continental team in the world and be the most attractive place to go for up-and-coming talent. We're going to build a true-first class organization that supports the rider in the same way that both our men's and women's EF Pro Cycling teams are supported,” Vaughters said.
Mike Creed has managed Aevolo since its inception in 2017 and will continue to do so, along with being its lead sport director. A former professional rider, Creed’s experience in the sport has prepared him to lead the team in its next chapter.
“I'm excited because it's something new to learn. It's new people and a new environment, new situations. The goal for me will be finding the best people we can to recruit,” Creed said. “I’ll measure my success not only in terms of how many under-23s we can feed to the WorldTour squad and are successful, but how many of those transitions are almost seamless, in terms of rider professionalism, of being prepared.”
Supporting and nurturing riders as they develop is a primary goal for the WorldTour squad. As the pro peloton has trended toward signing younger riders in recent years, the ability to foster emerging talent has become increasingly important. Rather than force young talent onto a WorldTour team immediately, having an in-house development team allows EF Pro Cycling to move riders between teams for meaningful, deliberate experience.
“For a team like us that doesn’t have the biggest budget in the WorldTour, you realize that if you truly have the desire to someday win the Tour de France, the way to do that is to identify the talent, nurture the talent, even build a team around the talent and retain the talent. And then do that for a period of 10 or 15 years and build a Tour de France winner. And that requires a sponsor like EF Education First that is in the game for the long term because it requires dedication to a really strategically outlined process. That’s why we want to create the best development program in the world and be the most attractive development program in the world. Once you've got that talent and developed that talent, then you build. You build up and around that as opposed to trying to buy it from the outside,” Vaughters said.
The 2025 roster is not yet confirmed but is expected to include a mix of America, European, and Japanese riders. As the team will be based in Girona, Creed is focusing on a European racing season.
“We definitely want to go to all the under-23 monuments and the bigger races like the baby Giro especially or Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Valle d’Aosta. All those races, we'll be trying our hardest to get into,” Creed said.
About Aevolo Under 23 Cycling Team:
Aevolo Under 23 Cycling Team is a leading North American cycling team dedicated to developing young talent and fostering a culture of excellence in the sport. With a focus on athlete development, teamwork, and innovation, Aevolo aims to cultivate the next generation of cycling champions under the leadership of Sports Director Michael Laroche Creed.