EF Education-EasyPost add another neo-pro in 19-year-old Briton Lukas Nerurkar

EF Education-EasyPost have continued their mini-youth revolution during the transfer window, adding another neo-pro for 2024 in the form of 19-year-old Lukas Nerurkar.

The Trinity Racing rider is the third rider to make the step up from the Continental development team for the new season, following Luke Lamperti (Soudal-QuickStep) and Finlay Pickering (Bahrain Victorious) to the WorldTour.

Nerurkar, son of Olympic marathon runner Richard Nerurkar, is the fifth new face at EF for 2024, joining Saint Piran's Jack Rootkin-Gray (aged 20), Dutchman Jardi Christian van der Lee (22), Hagens Berman Axeon's Darren Rafferty (20), and Archie Ryan (21), who moves up from Jumbo-Visma's development team.

This season, racing in the U23 ranks, Nerurkar won a tough hilly stage in Lombardia at the Giro Next Gen, also winning a mountain stage at the Orlen Nations Grand Prix. Back in February, he mixed it up with the professionals, taking sixth and the best young rider's prize at O Gran Camiño.

"I think I'm a punchy climber," Nerurkar said in a statement released by EF Education-EasyPost. "At the moment, that is the way that I am going. I climb quite well and normally, at the end of hard days, I will still have a good sprint to win from a reduced group.

"I just want to learn as much as I can," he added, noting that the aggressive racing style of EF appeals to him. "It will be really good to get experience racing at the highest level.

"It would be nice to win some races, but I haven't done a whole lot of racing yet and think the next few years will just be about finding out what kind of rider I am and whatever I turn out to be, improving in those areas, so I can really perform in races."

In recent months, Nerurkar competed at the Tour de L'Avenir and the Road World Championships junior road race in Glasgow. Last year he took on several pro-level races with Trinity, including the Volta a Portugal and Tour of Britain.

Nerurkar, who grew up in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia before moving to Brighton, England when he was seven years old, recalled how he got his start in cycling after making the switch from running.

"Some friends came over from the UK and brought some cycling kit over for me," he said. "I was in a jersey and bib shorts that were far too big for me, but just loved wearing them and riding.

"My sister did running. In Ethiopia, it is unusual to do cycling. Almost everyone takes up running instead, but on the bike, I could just go a bit farther and faster."

EF Education-EasyPost boss Jonathan Vaughters said that Nerurkar is a punchy rider with a fast finish, though admitted it's still early days to judge whether he'll blossom into a one-day specialist or a stage racer.

"Lukas has obviously inherited that incredible aerobic capacity from his father," Vaughters said. "He has also proven that he is quite punchy and quick, with a good finish. He is tactically astute, as you saw with his stage wins at the Baby Giro and Orlen Nations Grand Prix.

"I don't know whether he is going to be a stage racer or a one-day racer. I do know that he can go uphill and knows how to smell a finish line."

Another key rider locked down as Bettiol renews

The news of Nerurkar's signing is the latest move made by EF Education-EasyPost to round out their 2024 racing roster. Currently, 21 riders are publically confirmed as signed or contracted for next season, with Michael Valgren's step back up from the squad's development team also confirmed following a long recovery from a broken pelvis last June.

Key riders including GC men Richard Carapaz and Hugh Carthy, time trialist Stefan Bissegger, and hilly Classics stars Ben Healy and Neilson Powless are already contracted for next season or beyond. Magnus Cort, who heads to Uno-X is as yet the only confirmed departure from the team.

The team have recently re-signed Alberto Bettiol to a new deal, too, keeping the former Tour of Flanders champion at the team for another year.

The 29-year-old, who in January scored his sole win of the season at the Tour Down Under prologue, has spent all but one year of his 10 in the peloton within the setup. He said it was an easy decision to renew with his "second family".

"My history as a professional cyclist is based on this team and the mentality of this team," Bettiol said. "I've grown up with them. It's like a second family for me when I go to the races. They make me feel at home. I've been growing up with the same people for almost ten years now and I still see more opportunities for my growth.

"This team has helped me grow up as a rider and also as a person. This aspect was important for me when I decided to renew with the team. It's like I've started a long journey, and I don't feel that I've reached the finish line yet. I still need to work; I still need to grow and ultimately that's why I stayed with the team.

"We fight the problems together and face the difficulties. It was simple for me to decide to stay with this team."