EF Education-EasyPost's head sports director Charly Wegelius departs after 15 years with the team

After spending a huge 15 seasons with EF Education-EasyPost, the team’s Head Sports Director Charly Wegelius will leave the outfit at the end of the year.

Wegelius joined what was then known as Garmin Sharp in 2012, after an 11-year stint as a pro rider, beginning his directing career with the American outfit. Since then he has risen through the ranks to lead the team's unit of sports directors.

"Thank you for the incredible ride," the team stated, alongside a social media video with footage of Wegelius from the past 15 years.

Wegelius himself has not yet commented on the reasons for his departure.

His move away is another shuffling of the team staff pack, with a number of prominent roles at top teams affected. Among the highest profile of those is Matt White’s departure from Movistar, with the Australian heading to EF Education-EasyPost as a sports director.

It is not yet clear who will be stepping into Wegelius' shoes as the Head Sports Director at the EF team.

Known as a shrewd tactician and leader, Wegelius has contributed significantly to a number of high-profile race victories over the years. This year he guided Richard Carapaz to two memorable stage wins at the Tour de France, where the Ecuadorian won the polka-dot jersey of the mountains classification. Last year he and fellow director Tom Southam were the brains behind Ben Healey’s stage winning attack on stage 6 of the Tour, the Irishman moving into the race leader’s yellow jersey after finishing third four days later.

Though he was born in Finland, Wegelius is British and had a long career as a rider, working as a climbing domestique. He came close with a number of podium placings, but Wegelius famously never won a race. He later charted his life as a rider in his book Domestique, which fellow former pro, Southam, helped write before he took up his own role as a sports director at the EF team.

Wegelius started his riding career with the Mapei-QuickStep team, spending three seasons there before heading to Italian squad De Nardi, then Liquigas. After two seasons with Omega Pharma-Lotto, he spent his final year as a rider with the now defunct American UnitedHealthcare team, before starting his time in management in 2012.

Wegelius is also remembered for a controversy at the 2005 World Championships where he Southam chose not to work for the Great Britain team. Both were riding for the Italian Liquigas squad at the time and took instruction from the Italian national team instead. Neither Wegelius or Southam ever rode for Britain again.

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