EF Education-EasyPost has partnered with the ONTO junior racing team, with 16 riders aged 15 to 18 set to compete as EF Education-ONTO in 2023. The new outfit aims to open opportunities for North America's junior talent on cycling's world stage.
"EF Education-EasyPost is proud to announce its support of the ONTO junior program. Our partnership ensures that the most talented young bike racers in North America can aspire to WorldTour success on a squad that cares for their personal development and health," the team wrote in a press release issued on Monday.
EF Education-EasyPost CEO Jonathan Vaughters founded the now WorldTour team at the junior development programme sponsored by 5280 magazine in Denver in 2003.
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The team later became UCI-registered under the sponsors TIAA-Cref in 2005, moving up with a ProTeam licence under Team Slipstream in 2007, and then to the WorldTour under Team Garmin-Chipotle in 2009, and supporting riders like Tejay van Garderen and Peter Stetina.
"Junior racing is where a rider is formed. Where they learn how to race, how to be a teammate, how to win, yet how to sacrifice. The few years in junior racing are the most important years. Happy we are back as part of the 20th anniversary of EF Pro Cycling," Vaughters wrote of the partnership with ONTO on Twitter.
EF Education-ONTO roster for 2023 includes Gray Barnett (16), Ashlin Barry (16), Peyton Burckel (16), CJ Burford (18), Miles De Sousa (18), Levi Dykes (18), Enzo Hincapie (15), Ben McConchie (18), and Reilly Oberding (18).
"I hope that this project shows that talented kid in Ohio, or Québec, or Los Angeles, who might have seen the Tour de France on Instagram and decided that they want to be a bike racer, that they can get there if they work hard and commit to it," Vaughters said.
"That is how our team got started. We were a junior team first. And ultimately that is the most important thing that we can do. We’re going to be keeping a close eye on North American junior races. Prove yourself there, and EF Education-ONTO could be your shot to learn what it takes to race as a pro and show what you can do against the best in the world."
ONTO is a competitive junior team founded in 2014 in Greenville, South Carolina, and supported by donations to Pedalgogy. The junior riders work with director Rusty Miller at the national championships, Nations Cup and events across the US.
"Anyone who succeeds in cycling knows about hard work and sacrifice and effort on a level that is beyond 99% of people in the world," Miller said in a press release.
"A kid who discovers that he may not have the athletic ceiling that would allow him to go to the WorldTour is going to be changed by the experience of learning teamwork and discipline and responsibility, and that to me is just as joyful as sending a golden talent on to fame. Our riders will make marks on the world because they have learned how to work and how to work with others."
