EF Education-EasyPost founder and chief executive, Jonathan Vaughters, has welcomed Irish rider Archie Ryan into his team, saying his climbing ability was world class. Vaughters also pinpointed Ryan's petrol engine acceleration on the climbs and his ability to turn on five-minute bursts of power on the climbs.
Ryan has not raced yet this year due to injury but Jumbo Visma Development recently said he was back on his bike training again. It is not yet clear if he will race this season but his results last year were outstanding, including 4th in Tour de l'Avenir.
He also took a stage wins at Tour de Slovaquie (2.1) and Ronde de l'Isard (2.2U). Once Ryan can overcome his injury issues, it seems certain he is destined for a successful and lucrative career in the World Tour and, judging by his remarks, Vaughters has clearly seen enough to satisfy himself of that.
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“Archie is a proven winner on mountain stages,” Vaughters said. “He is punchy and explosive, a pure climber. He accelerates incredibly well and his five-minute power is great. He is someone who I view as a climber in the classical cycling sense of the word.”
Ryan's signing was announced on Friday at the same time the team also confirmed Dutch rider Jardi Christiaan van der Lee was joining its ranks. The 21-year-old excelled in eracing during the pandemic and has also turned some of that talent into results on the road, and U23 selection for the Nations Cup with the Netherlands.
While Ryan is more established that van der Lee, Vaughters said he was looking forward to welcoming them both and to ensuring they develop as athletes inside his team.
EF Education-EasyPost was a team that believed "steady progression leads to big breakthroughs". Ryan and van der Lee would "each ride programs that will give them chances to succeed in harder and harder races, as Ben Healy has done over the past few years". They were "both ready to take on the World Tour" and the team was "excited that they are going to do so with us".
