EF Education-EasyPost head to the Tour de France with a team almost of two halves. It's a squad replete with plenty of climbers able to support new leader Richard Carapaz as he takes aim at the general classification, but also one featuring several stage hunters chasing wins of their own.
The Ecuadorian climber, reigning Olympic champion, heads up the eight-man selection, while the likes of Magnus Cort – a double Tour stage winner – is joined by Alberto Bettiol and Neilson Powless on the American team.
The trio – in addition to Colombians Rigoberto Urán and Esteban Chaves as well as James Shaw and Andrey Amador – will all be pulling for the 2019 Giro d'Italia winner as he returns to the Tour for the first time since his 2021 podium. But there'll be chances for the stage hunters, too.
"We have a really big goal here," Chaves said in EF's pre-Tour press conference on Friday afternoon. "It's not a secret that with Richard we'll try to do the best in the general classification. If we have the chance and opportunity, then we also have individual opportunities.
"But we'll prioritise Richard. We'll support him in the climbs, on the flat, in the bus."
With a climber-friendly route and only 22km of time trialling, it's no surprise that the EF squad is packed with numerous climbers. Chaves and Urán have five Grand Tour podiums between them, of course, while Amador, Shaw, Powless, Bettiol, and Cort can all do a job in the mountains.
The group will have top favourites Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar and their own super-strong Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates teams to contend with, but Chaves was confident when assessing his own team's chances.
"It's not a secret that we have a really good team here," he said. "We have a good atmosphere, spirit, and character. We have opportunities on the climbs.
"If you see the roadbook, it's 14 stages with more than 3,000 metres of climbing so that suits us really well as a team. It helps us in our goal and that's why we chose these riders for this Tour."
Elsewhere, riders like Cort – last year a stage winner from the break at Megève – and Powless – who was out in the breakaways four times last July – will be heading up the stage hunters unit of the team.
Cort himself racked up five days in the break during last year's race, including four in a row during the opening week. There are numerous chances to do the same this year, Cort said, even if there are maybe fewer than in 2022.
"I think I'll have a good handful," he said. "The rest of the team is also quite strong, especially the climbers. Only on the pure sprint days we won't be in the mix. The rest of the stages we'll try something with somebody.
"There are not as many as I would maybe have liked. Neilson might have a few more than me. There are a lot of climbing days and hard days."
While Cort ruled out a bid for the yellow jersey on the tough, hilly opening day in Bilbao on Saturday – "super hard with steep climbs in the final" – Powless said that the first chance for him could fall on the second stage to San Sebástián, a day with the Jaizkibel climb, which featured on the Donostia Klasikoa he won in 2021, falling 15km from the line.
"The first stage [for us] in general is probably stage 2 finishing in San Sebástián," he said. "For breakaways, you have to see how the race is going. It's kind of hard to pin one down from so far out depending on how the GC battle is panning out. Looking forward to the third week especially.
"I've just been keeping things under control a little more," he added when asked how he's progressed as a rider in recent years. "I guess I'm the type of guy who doesn't want to miss out on a race opportunity, so I was attacking too much.
"I've been holding myself back a bit more. This year it's been paying off a bit more, picking my opportunities instead of just going like crazy when the flag drops."
Powless, who can count top 10s at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders among his 2023 accomplishments, and Cort, who completed his Grand Tour stage win triple at the Giro d'Italia in Viareggio, both figure to be among the more active riders in the 176-strong peloton in July, then.
But, for them personally, and for the team as a whole, what would a successful Tour de France look like?
"Let's say the same as many other teams," Powless said. "Stage wins and a rider on the podium. If we can accomplish one or both, it'd be a great Tour."
