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.

Italian powerhouse Vincenzo Albanese stepped up his game in 2025. In his first season in EF Education-EasyPost pink, he sprinted to a huge win on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse and finished his first Tour de France.

Vincenzo lives in the hills around Florence but is most at home when he is racing over the Belgian cobbles, rattling up bergs and sprinting into corners in the wind. He is a strong asset for us during the spring classics. In 2024, Vincenzo finished in the top ten at 19 races, including the E3 Saxo Classic, Binche-Chimay-Binche, and the Circuit Franco-Belge. Earlier in his career, he won the Trofeo Matteotti and a stage of the Tour du Limousin.

He has been racing since he was six years old and can navigate a peloton like it is his second nature. As a U23, Vincenzo won seven races, including a stage at the Tour de l’Avenir and the Trofeo Matteotti, a professional race he rode with the Italian national team.

That performance earned him his first contract and kick started his racing career. Vincenzo has since developed into a consummate professional. He is a consistent performer who is ready to work for his teammates across all terrain from the start to the end of the season. He has ridden the Giro d’Italia four times and, though he loves his national grand tour, his biggest dream is to win a stage of the Tour de France.

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.