EF Education-EastPost have signed 18-year-old world junior cyclocross champion Mattia Agostinacchio, the team has announced.
Agostinacchio has been racing for Italian club Ciclista Trevigliese at the junior level this year but will make the step up to the WorldTour for 2026 on a "long-term contract", EF announced.
He started out racing mountain bike before taking on cyclocross and road racing, and is currently the junior World Champion in cyclocross. He won the race in Liévin back in February, attacking from behind with a broken shoe on the final lap to push past Frenchman Soren Bruyère Joumard and win by 12 seconds.
This season, Agostinacchio has won several road races in Italy, including the GP Liberazione Città di Massa, the Coppa Città di Cantù, and the Trofeo San Rocco.
He finished second at the Trophée Centre Morbihan stage race in June and recently finished in the top 10 in the junior time trial at the Road World Championships in Rwanda.
"This year has been great. I’m happy with how I’ve raced and some of my wins and results. I came into the season on the back of my World Championships win in cyclocross, and I worked a lot for that win,” Agostinacchio said upon signing with EF.
"I still don’t have the words to describe how I felt after that victory, but right now I’m looking to the future and joining EF Education-EasyPost.
"I think that EF Education-EasyPost is going to be the perfect team for me. It’s a good team for young riders to join because I think they are very strong when it comes to rider development. I had conversations with Jonathan Vaughters in the spring, and he made a very good impression.
"I genuinely believe that I’ll learn a lot from the team and become a better rider. In my first year, I want to improve on the bike but also get to know everyone on the team and have some fun. I think that’s really important for young riders, having that chance to enjoy cycling while you learn."
Agostinacchio on the podium at the 2025 Cyclocross World Championships (Image credit: Getty Images)
EF boss Jonathan Vaughters praised Agostinacchio, calling him "crazy intelligent" with "a lot of untapped potential". He also noted his new rider's ability to generate explosive power in short bursts.
"When it comes to watching Mattia race, the first thing that stood out to me was the way in which he wins races," Vaughters said. "In cyclocross, his skill is that he can pick one climb, or one moment, and just be massively explosive for two minutes and create a gap, and that gap never comes back.
"That super explosive power, lasting 45 seconds to two minutes, is something that not many riders possess. It’s natural and really hard to train. You’ve either got it or you don’t, and in modern cycling, that’s how you win races, by creating that separation."
Agostinacchio will take on races with both EF's WorldTour and development teams next season, with the US squad not wanting to rush him into a full calendar of top-level races at such a young age.
"We’re not going to push on him too hard, so he will race on the development team, but he’ll also race as part of the WorldTour squad," said Vaughters.
"Here and there, we’ll put him into a few WorldTour races, just to start learning. We won’t overcook him, but when we can, and when we think he’s ready, we’ll race him up on the WorldTour team so that he can gain that vital experience.
"The sooner he understands how races like the Tour of Flanders or Amstel Gold work, the sooner he can start finding success in them."
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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