New team, new philosophy: how EF Education-Cannondale are plotting Tour de France Femmes success

In 2024, there will be a new pink-clad team in the women's peloton. Twelve years after the closure of the Garmin-Cervélo women’s team, and at the end of a two-year partnership with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB, EF Pro Cycling are making another foray into the world of women’s cycling with the new EF Education-Cannondale squad.

Like seemingly every new cycling team, EF Education-Cannondale’s goals are lofty: light up races, step up to the WorldTour, and eventually win the Tour de France. It’s a career path we’ve heard repeated by many newcomers over the years.

The difference, though, is that you can really believe EF Education-Cannondale might achieve them. From signing a litany of star riders, including Paris-Roubaix Femmes winner Alison Jackson and successful stage racers Veronica Ewers and Kristen Faulkner, to sponsorship and infrastructure worthy of the top WorldTour squads, EF Education-Cannondale already look like a team ready to compete on the highest level.

Behind the helm of it all in 2024 will be Esra Tromp, a retired pro and experienced general manager who launched the Jumbo-Visma women’s squad in 2021 after three years working behind the scenes with the successful Parkhotel Valkenburg team.

Tromp joined the EF set-up in June, spending a few days with the men’s EF Education-EasyPost team at the Tour de France in July to get settled, and despite the hard work of setting up a team, it’s clear that she’s raring to go.

“I’m super excited,” she told GCN in a recent interview.

“In the last few weeks, I’ve messaged people in the team so many times saying ‘I want to start racing! I don’t want to have this winter, I want to start racing immediately.’ I think we have a good group of riders, but also a really great group of staff members. Mixed with the knowledge and support from the men’s organisation, we have one organisation in a box.”

Read more: EF Education-Cannondale recruit Carmen Small as head sports director

To the uninitiated, there is already an EF women’s team in the peloton: EF Education-TIBCO-SVB share the name, the website, the jersey design and plenty more with the men’s team, but they were officially only partnered with EF Education-EasyPost and supported by EF Education, rather than actually owned by the overarching Slipstream Sports organisation.

With EF Education-TIBCO-SVB owner Linda Jackson unwilling to pass her team ownership over to Slipstream, the next option was to set up a new team themselves, taking with them the sponsorship of both EF Education and Cannondale. The loss of two sponsors, plus the collapse of SVB earlier this year, proved too much for Jackson’s team to weather, and EF Education-TIBCO-SVB will fold at the end of this year.

Rising from its ashes will be EF Education-Cannondale, a team which is somewhat recognisable, but also very different. The similarities: they’ve picked up several of the same riders from the folding WorldTour team, they’ll race in the signature EF pink, and the name change is as small as a change of suffixes.

In reality, though, this is a brand new, separate team, which aims to be different from its predecessor, bringing in a new philosophy and style rather than just inheriting Linda Jackson’s squad. As well as the different ideas, there’s one practical element that will separate EF Education-Cannondale from its TIBCO-SVB older sister: the new team won’t be in the Women’s WorldTour.

A WorldTour team without the licence

As a newly-launched team current UCI rules preclude EF Education-Cannondale from applying for a Women’s WorldTour licence, and the next scheduled promotion and relegation isn’t until 2026, though a licence may become free earlier. This means that for at least 2024, EF will only be a Continental-level team.

However, the lack of a WorldTour licence is only a formality in the eyes of Tromp. Though officially a Continental squad, the team aims to operate on the level of a Women’s WorldTour outfit, in terms of professionalism and set-up.

“Now it wasn’t possible due to the UCI regulations, but we check all the boxes for a WorldTour licence,” Tromp said.

“As soon as there is a licence available, whether it’s next year because of a team that falls out [of the WorldTour] or later, we will step up to the WorldTour as soon as possible.

“For sure that’s our goal. We set it up as a WorldTour team, we only don’t have the licence, but in one or two years we will be.”

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

The support of EF Education and Cannondale gives the new team a strong financial backing

Emulating a WorldTour team, for Tromp, means not only replicating the financial and structural requirements of a top-level team but also emulating a high level of professionalism and competition.

“The level of professionalism is there. We haven’t started racing yet, but I’m sure it’s on a really high level, and competitive with other top WorldTour teams.”

Stepping up, though, is not something the team are definitely assured of, if and when a spot opens up. The new relegation and promotion system means that the 15 licences only change hands every three years, according to points, or on the occasion that a team folds and a licence becomes available earlier.

In essence, this means that if EF Education-Cannondale want to become a WorldTeam, they first need to become one of the best Continental teams. The commitment to achieving this as soon as possible seems to be already clear from their roster, which despite being built from scratch, has recruited some of the best and most reliable riders in the peloton.

Building a strong roster from scratch

So how did they go about recruiting their roster? Whilst there are certainly challenges of having to build a roster of 15 or so riders from scratch, it also gave Tromp, and CEO of EF Pro Cycling Jonathan Vaughters, the freedom of a blank slate, and the chance to really hand-select the type of riders they wanted.

Rather than just basing their search on results, Tromp and Vaughters thought a lot about the riding philosophy they wanted their new recruits to embody. Despite Tromp’s long career in the women’s sport and Vaughters’ shorter history with women’s teams, the pair found a lot of commonality in the riders they wanted to sign.

“I thought okay, maybe we have different opinions about riders and who to hire and who fits in the team, but actually we have quite the same ideas,” Tromp explained.

“We searched for riders with an aggressive profile, [who can] just be a little bit more out of the box sometimes, not just following what is already for years or past strategies from teams. I really liked that philosophy.

“I think the riders who are joining the team really stand behind this philosophy and this way of racing.”

Building a team from a blank slate gave Tromp the freedom to really shape the squad, how she wanted, and it’s clear there was a distinct strategy to their recruitment.

“I wanted to split the team more or less into an experienced group and a little bit younger group. We also hired a few girls who aren’t the youngest, but young in cycling age. For example, Megan Armitage is young in cycling years, not the youngest in the group but not as experienced as say Alison Jackson or Lotta [Henttala]. So I wanted to balance it out.”

As well as her knowledge from working as a DS, Tromp watched races, went to races, and worked with the men’s performance team to identify talent in the peloton based on data, and fill the gaps in their roster. The result of this holistic approach is a team full of talent, and impressively balanced for a brand new squad.

Managing expectations

The only downside of putting together such a talented roster - and perhaps the best problem for a team boss to have - is how to manage all the riders’ ambitions, hopes and expectations.

EF Education-Cannondale’s squad is packed with stars, from the defending Paris-Roubaix champion to several riders who have won Grand Tour stages.

It makes sense, given Tromp and Vaughters’ desire for aggressive riders, riders who can win, but there are very few riders you’d look at on the EF roster and pick out as a domestique. So how will it work, having a team of riders who all want to win?

“Everything starts with good conversations,” Tromp said. “I think it’s really important to get together and really understand what are everybody’s needs and wants for next year. And if there are challenges then we really discuss it openly with the riders, sports directors and coaches.”

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

Kristen Faulkner is a rider who is likely to have big goals as she moves on from Jayco AlUla

For Tromp, it’s all about openness, but open conversations and also being open to changing plans as things evolve during the season. And though the task of managing expectations may be a tricky one, there’s also clearly a strength to having so many winners in a team.

“Because the goals also need to be there, and for sure sometimes riders will have the same goals for a certain race. Sometimes it’s a challenge, and sometimes it’s an advantage, because then you probably have two or three strong riders for those finals, and you can play the game.

“If we are honest with each other in the race, outside the race, if we can speak about it and have a good discussion, then in the end having three cards to play in the final is even better. I see it as an advantage.”

The racing programme

Whilst the roster and team set-up may be worthy of a WorldTour licence in all but name, the fact they don’t actually have that status has one significant impact: they won’t get automatic invites to WorldTour races.

As a Continental team, EF Education-Cannondale will be at the behest of race organisers, who pick and choose which squads they invite to their events, based on a wide variety of factors. The lack of a guaranteed calendar may not be ideal, but for Tromp, the profile of the team will go a long way in helping them.

“That’s obviously the biggest challenge, but I don’t think it’s a real challenge, I’m not worried at all,” Tromp said. “It’s just a little bit harder to plan, I would say, because you’re depending on what invitations you get. But on the other hand, you can make contact with race organisers, and we have a roster that’s really attractive to a lot of organisers.

“The team and the marketing around the team is I think one of the best of the peloton, men and women. So that’s also really attractive for organisers, and we have a good relationship with all the big organisers, so that’s really helpful.”

The ultimate goal: win the Tour de France

Perhaps the most notable element of EF Education-Cannondale’s calendar is the fact that this year their chances of an invitation to the Tour de France Femmes are slim. The non-WorldTour spots go to the two best-performing Continental teams, plus a handpicked selection of second-tier squads, almost always taking a heavy French bias. The lure of a men’s-attached squad may help them out, but it’s also very likely the pink jerseys won’t be in action in France next August.

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The EF Pro Cycling pink jerseys may be missing from the Tour de France Femmes peloton next summer

However, that doesn’t mean that the Tour and their future at this race isn’t on their mind.

In women’s cycling, the Tour de France Femmes may only be a couple of years old, but it’s quickly also building a very important status, as both the most targeted and most famous race on the calendar and therefore a big sporting and commercial goal for any rider, team or sponsor.

“One of the main goals, which we set before starting the team, is that in the end, winning the Tour de France is important for us,” Tromp said.

“That doesn’t need to be next year, but in the upcoming years - I don’t want to pinpoint a year - but in the end, that’s really our goal: to be one of the best teams. And winning the Tour de France is obviously the highest thing you can reach in cycling.”

It’s clear from speaking to Tromp that EF Education-Cannondale’s goals are ambitious and overarching, as the outfit looks to set up a long-term and sustainable project. It all has to start somewhere, though, and for 2024, their aims are slightly smaller but still aspirational.

“Next year, we really want to be out there and be visible in races, to show our pink jersey,” she said. “We really want to show it, race aggressively, and of course go for as many wins as possible. We want to be aggressive, not just following and maybe getting dropped or beaten. We really want to race with our hearts. Yes, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, that’s the challenge, but we want to play the game, and that’s the main thing.”

For a new team, having ambitious goals is perhaps nothing new, but it’s what is behind those goals that counts. And for EF Education-Cannondale, it’s evident that the basis for their ambitions is a strong roster of riders, an experienced group of staff, committed support from the men’s outfit, and a set-up that is ready to emulate a high level of professionalism and determination.

Their 2024 debut race may not be confirmed yet, but one thing seems certain: the new pink jerseys will be getting stuck into the action as soon as they can be.

Read more news, features and interviews from around the women's peloton in our dedicated women's racing section.