EF Education-Cannondale on cloud nine after perfect start

EF Education-Cannondale began their maiden campaign in perfect fashion at the weekend with two wins in two days.

The American squad won the Trofeo Felanitx-Colònia de Sant Jordi on Saturday with Noemi Rüegg and then backed that up 24 hours later with Magdeleine Vallieres claiming victory in the Trofeo Palma Femina.

The wins also marked the first victories in both riders’ careers. Rüegg then followed up her win with a fine second place in the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx on Monday.

“What’s also nice is that we’ve won two races with two different riders,” sports director Carmen Small told GCN.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better start. Our plan in Trofeo Palma Femina was that Magdeleine and Clara Emond would wait and save as much effort as possible before the climbs. That worked out perfectly and the team really supported them. On the last climb there were five riders left and 'Mags' followed Silvia Persico on the descent. Persico crashed but we just went full gas to the finish.”

EF Education-Cannondale only formed at the start of the year and had their first training camp in December of last year. The American squad signed several high-profile riders in the off-season, including Veronica Ewers, Coryn Labecki, Kristen Faulkner and 2023 Paris-Roubaix Femmes winner Alison Jackson.

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

The main objective coming into the early season Spanish races was to gel as a unit and work together. Small was understandably overjoyed with how the roster had seamlessly formed bonds in such a short space of time.

“Our only goal this week was to work as a team for these three Mallorca races. That’s what we wrote down and that’s what we focussed on with the riders and the staff. That was the primary goal given that we’re a new team with so many new faces. Communication was another objective, so if we were doing all of that and not winning, we’d still have been happy,” she said.

The team have bigger goals further down the line, including an assault on the Spring Classics and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift - subject to a wildcard invite. The 15-rider roster, however, will ultimately take a huge amount of confidence from their early season tally with the UAE Tour coming up in February. The race will mark the team’s first outing in the Women’s World Tour.

“I hope that they can really learn from these early races and then take that into the rest of the season because we’ve definitely not tried to peak for these early season races. We’ve got our long-term goals but we’re still coming out of training camp. The day before the first race we did four hours on the bike in training, so it’s not like we were preparing for these results. It’s still cool to see the wins coming in early,” Small added.