EF Education-Cannondale recruit Carmen Small as head sports director

The new EF Education-Cannondale women’s team has recruited former professional and current sports director Carmen Small as its head DS for 2024, the team announced on Monday.

Small raced on the road until 2017, and has spent the last six years in sports director roles, most recently at Jumbo-Visma, where she worked under EF Education-Cannondale general manager Esra Tromp.

“I love the philosophy of the team,” Small said of her new managerial home. “The playfulness of it. They’re fun, but also serious. They’re very professional but at the same time they can have a laugh and create something that’s a little bit different.

"You notice this from the outside. It’s not ‘we have to be serious and not smile and not laugh in order to win races.’ So let’s laugh a bit, enjoy what we’re doing, and then success will come.”

The arrival of the Durango native adds another American dimension to the squad, who have Kristen Faulkner, Veronica Ewers and Coryn Labecki amongst their mixed roster which is aiming at WorldTour status.

“I think I’ve found a good home,” she said. “It’s an American team and I’m an American. Even though the team is European-based and we have a strong, international roster, this is super nice for me because I’ve only ever been on foreign teams. It’s really nice to think about going to US nationals. I’ve never gotten to do nationals as a director, so I’m super excited about that.”

Read more: Kristen Faulkner signs for EF Education-Cannondale

Alongside riders Coryn Labecki, Kim Cadzow and Noemi Rüegg, Small is another member of the Jumbo-Visma team to follow Esra Tromp to EF Education-Cannondale, with the general manager seemingly building a trusted team around her.

“Working with Esra, I’ve only had positive experiences,” Small said. “I believe in her. She’s an incredible manager. She really knows how to bring out the best in people and how to foster the goodness in a team. Getting to work with Esra was number one.”

Though building a new team from scratch, the personnel assembled at EF Education-Cannondale so far is one with plenty of experience in women’s cycling, and the prospect of creating something new was a draw for Small.

“When Esra approached me about this team, it was super interesting because it’s a first-year program,” she said. “I had experience with Team Virtu to build that team up so I’m not new to the game of new teams but this was nice because while of course EF Education-Cannondale has the infrastructure set up from the men’s side, it’s a blank slate. That gives you the opportunity to build and create something new and see what you can develop out of it. That was interesting to me.”

GCN understands that EF Education-Cannondale still has additional rider signings to announce before their first racing season gets underway in the new year.