ef education First to ride ‘alternative’ events

Riders from Worldtour team EF Education First-drapac are set to ride a series of “alternative” events such as the Three Peaks cyclo-cross race and the Transcontinental ultraendurance race, as part of the team’s new partnership with Rapha.

James Fairbank, central marketing director of Rapha, said the “alternative calendar was built out of the Worldtour calendar being so confusing”.

He added: “There might be an EF rider at the Three Peaks next year. We’re looking at the Leadville 100 [mountain bike race], [gravel race] Dirty Kanza and trying to use this alternative calendar to generate more engaging stories around characters on the team.”

On the Transcontinental race, he said: “It would be amazing if we could convince one of their athletes to do it at the end of their season.”

He added that they currently had a longlist of 22 different events.

The plans form part of a new partnership between Jonathan Vaughters’s EF Education Firstdrapac team and Rapha that will also see it provide kit and produce videos, articles and other content.

It is the first time the British brand has returned to the Worldtour since its sponsorship of Team Sky finished at the end of 2016.

Rapha will continue to sponsor Team Canyon-sram alongside its deal with EF Education First.

Fairbank said the brand had done a lot of research, including commissioning a 36,000-word report on how it could best get involved in top-flight men’s competition again and concluded that the sport needed to do more to “work harder to bring personalities and characters out”.

The first technical clothing influenced by the sponsorship of the team is expected to be available to the public around the Tour de France