James Shaw loves the places that his bike has taken him, the people he has met because of cycling, and the life lessons he’s learned through the sport. But what does he love most about cycling? Racing.

With five grand tours now in his legs, the 29-year-old British climber is gunning for a great 2026. He’ll take every chance he can get to show what he can do on the sport’s biggest stage. James’s journey to the top hasn’t been easy. After his first few years as a pro, he couldn’t find a contract and had to go back to the sport’s second division. He considered quitting to become a train conductor, but with the support of his family and friends, James stuck with it and earned another shot in the big leagues after a number of strong stage race performances. Since joining our team in 2022, he has evolved into a loyal super domestique, who can get over the hardest climbs to help his teammates. Always willing to pull, he hasn’t pushed his own ambitions aside.

James earned his best results so far out of breaks at the 2023 Tour de France, where he finished fifth and seventh on tough mountain stages. When he gets his chance, he goes all in.

He splits his time between Andorra and England’s Peak District. When he is home, James resets by taking his dogs for long walks on the moors and riding with old clubmates. His racing and training schedule is very busy, but whenever he has time, James hitches a trailer to his bike and goes bike packing. He also enjoys riding motorbikes and going off-roading in the old 4x4 that he refurbished.

Jardi van der Lee made his WorldTour debut with EF Education-EasyPost in 2024. Turning pro was a dream come true for him and he was determined to make the most of his chance.

The year before, the Dutch talent was working in a supermarket to fund his racing adventures in the Dutch peloton. A number of breakthrough results caught our scouts’ eyes, including a fourth-place at the Orlen Nations Grand Prix. We gave Jardi a shot and he fit right in, riding a strong rookie season in support of his teammates.

Over the past two years, he has always been willing to learn and pull on the front of the peloton. From the Tour Down Under to Paris-Roubaix to the Italian fall classics and Japan Cup, Jardi soaked in all of the knowledge and experience he could.

He finished his first grand tour at the 2025 Vuelta a España.

Jardi knows he has got the power to climb with the best in the biggest races. He was one of the top e-racers on the planet.

There is a lot more to bike racing than power, however. Jardi is learning fast and ready to make his third pro season on the road his best yet. With his talent and work ethic, there’s no limit to what Jardi might do.

Madis Mihkels’ favorite races are the northern classics. The Estonian champion loves competing in the wind and muck in Belgium and France and flies over the cobblestones. In 2024, he raced into the top-ten at Paris-Roubaix. Last year, in his first season in EF Education-EasyPost pink, Madis finished third at the Classic Brugge-De Panne. He thrives at high speed, brushing elbows with his competitors on the roughest, smallest roads. But Madis' ambitions will never stop, even after he's rounded the last corner of the Roubaix velodrome. He wants to go for wins throughout the year. One-day races, stages in the biggest tours—he wants to cross their finish lines first. He has already won stages at the Deutschland Tour and the Tour of Estonia. He has ridden the Giro and the Vuelta, finished on the podium at the European championships, and raced the Olympics. Now, he wants to step up his game.

Madis honed his speed on the BMX track, where he raced until he was 15. He's always been an athlete. He started competitive swimming at four years old and did all kinds of sports when he was a kid. He was pretty good at them all, but it was on a bike that he started to dream of being great.

Madis balances his need for speed and rough-and-tumble racing with a quiet life in Estonia. He was born and raised in Tartu and, despite his home country's harsh winters, still opts to live there, though he has recently moved to Tallinn, the capital. He enjoys spinning out into the forests on his bike, passing lakes and rivers on quiet, smooth, nearly car-free roads. Before the thermometer dips too far below freezing and the snow plows come out, he can always escape somewhere warm. As soon as the ice is gone, he wants to go home, where he can fish for pike in fresh, clean water.

Twenty-year-old Markel Beloki returns to EF Education-EasyPost for his third professional season. Last year, he made his grand tour debut at the Vuelta a España and won the Tour Alsace with a stupendous attack on the La Planche des Belles Filles.

Still growing into his talents, Markel was an accomplished junior racer who won five of Spain’s biggest junior races, including the national time trial championships.

Long term, Markel’s dream is to go for grand tour GCs. He has believed that he can compete in races like the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a España ever since he dropped his dad on their favorite climb, the Zaldiaran, just outside his hometown, Vitoria-Gasteiz. Markel’s dad is the Basque cycling legend Joseba Beloki, who finished on the podium of the Tour de France three times.

Markel is too young to remember watching his dad race. He was two when his father hung up his racing bike. Markel has only seen his dad's famous attacks on YouTube. But, as soon as Markel was old enough to ride, his dad would take him out into the hills of the Basque Country. There was never any pressure on Markel to race. He just loved it. At first, he liked beating his friends to the tops of local mountains. When he was 12, Markel joined a local club and started racing for real. He often rode with his dad, who taught him how to be a cyclist.

Markel hopes to eclipse him.

Michael Valgren has eight pro wins to his name, including Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Amstel Gold Race. The races he loves most are the classics. Michael shines on the cobbles and on short, punchy climbs.

He grew up in Østerild, on the west coast of Denmark, and when he was a kid, he would race between towns by the North Sea, pretending that he was in the Tour de France. His favorite road is still the stretch through the dunes between the fishing villages of Klitmøller and Hanstholm, where he got started. He lives in Denmark with his family and enjoys taking his kids out on the local roads whenever he is home.

In 2025, Michael raced into the top ten at Strade Bianche and returned to the Tour de France for the first time since his comeback from a career-threatening injury in 2023. He wants to get back to his winning ways in 2026.

Samuele Battistella is ready to attack his second season with EF Education-EasyPost. Hailing from Veneto, Italy but now residing in Monaco, the 27-year-old adds versatility to our squad along with his enthusiasm and never-surrender attitude.

The Italian shot to fame in 2019, winning the rainbow jersey in the U23 World Championships road race in Yorkshire, England and has raced in the WorldTour for the last six seasons. A former winner of the Veneto Classic one-day race, Battistella is impressed by how our team takes to the start of every race determined to go for victory.

He has racked up over a dozen top tens in the last two years, with high placings in races such as the Tour de Pologne, Itzulia Basque Country and Paris-Nice. His aim is to transfer those results into podiums and wins with his teammates. His favorite races are the Ardennes classics and the Giro d’Italia.

Samuele became a father last year and is extra motivated to race for his family.

Darren Rafferty is excited for his third season in the WorldTour. In his rookie year, he won the Irish road race title, finished his first grand tour at the Vuelta a España, and discovered a whole new realm of watts. In season two, he raced his first Giro d’Italia and continued to be a dependable teammate. Now, he wants to race for results himself.

Darren is a talented climber. In the under-23 ranks, he won the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta-Mont Blanc, finished second at the Giro d'Italia Giovani Under 23, and came fifth in the U23 edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He doesn’t just fly up mountains. He is also a strong time trialist, with two Irish U23 titles to his name.

Darren’s future knows no bounds. He might become a GC contender or find that he is better suited to the hilly classics. For now, he wants to make the most of every opportunity that comes his way.

That is what he has been doing ever since he was a little kid. Darren started out racing U10 cyclocross races back in Ireland. As he got bigger and faster, cycling became more and more of a priority. In his late teens, Darren decided to go to France to race and pursue his dream of turning pro instead of accepting a place at university, where he had applied to become an accountant. It wasn’t an easy choice, but Darren’s bravery paid off, and now he has the chance to show the whole world what he can do on a bike.

He lives in Andorra, where he and his tight-knit crew of WorldTour buddies train throughout the year. They get ready for the races on long group rides in the mountains, sprinting for town signs and doing their efforts on the climbs. That keeps it fun.

Once the commissaire’s flag drops, Darren is a fierce competitor.