EF Education-EasyPost announced the signing of the 27th confirmed rider for the 2025 season with neo-pro Alastair MacKellar joining the team after a successful year with Hagens Berman Jayco.
MacKellar, 22, won a stage of the Alpes Isère Tour this season and came close to a stage win in the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta-Mont Blanc in a mountaintop finish.
The 2023 under-23 Australian road and time trial champion has been chasing his dream of racing in Europe since leaving the junior ranks. He competed in a handful of late-season races as a trainee with Jayco-AlUla but signed with EF Education-Easypost instead.
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"This has been a dream of mine since I started riding as a junior," MacKellar said in the team's press release. "I did all four years of my time as an under-23 in Europe, trying to work towards this, so to finally make it in my last year is not only a big relief, it's an honour. I'm super happy to have the opportunity and trust from the team."
Living out his dream in the WorldTour will come with expectations and pressure, but the rider from Queensland is focussed on the basics.
"I really want to go in with a little bit of weight off my shoulders and just train hard and be physically in the best shape I can and let it come as it comes. There are going to be a lot of really important, special opportunities for me next year. When they arise, I just want to be in the best possible shape I can be and then do the best I can."
EF Education-EasyPost have seen five riders leave the team, with Alberto Bettiol, Stefan Bissegger, Simon Carr and Jonas Rutsch leaving for other WorldTour outfits and Rigoberto Urán retiring.
With seven newcomers - Kasper Asgreen, Alex Baudin, Madis Mihkels, Vincenzo Albanese, Samuele Battistella coming across and neo-pros MacKellar and Max Walker joining the team - there are only three possible openings for the four riders currently out of contract, Alexander Cepeda, Esteban Chaves, James Shaw and Stefan de Bod.
The team's CEO Jonathan Vaughters sees MacKellar as a rider for the Ardennes Classics and hilly stage races.
"Alastair has a strong motor," Vaughters said. "In the under-23 ranks, he has shown that he can make a break stick after a hard, hilly day of racing and he has been doing a lot of work on his time trialing... We're really looking forward to working with him as he makes the step up to the WorldTour."
