EF Education-EasyPost signs Stefan de Bod

This article originally appeared on Velo News

EF Education-EasyPost signed South African rider Stefan de Bod to join the team in 2023.

The 25-year-old, who moves across from Astana-Qazaqstan, is a strong time trialist who can provide support in the grand tours.

Team boss Jonathan Vaughters said the South African will prove to be a valuable addition to the team.

"Stefan is a rider I've watched for quite a while," Vaughters said in a team release. "He's an underrated talent that can be a key asset to a team like ours trying to focus on big results in hilly races. His time trialing had gone under the radar, but is an example of his level of talent. My hope is we bring him up to his potential, and he becomes invaluable within this team."

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De Bod turned pro in 2019 with Dimension Data, and joined Astana in 2021. He’s tried to squeeze out the most he could during the COVID era, but hopes to keep improving.

"In the last couple of years, I've had some really good results but I'd also been struggling to figure out what type of rider I am. I'm starting to figure it out," he said. "I think I can develop into a really good breakaway specialist rider in big races and grand tours.

“Also I think I can develop into a GC rider for one week stage races. That's my longterm goal. I want to try to win stages from the breakaway because I see myself doing that first before I start going for the GC in one week races. Races like the Tour de Romandie, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour de Suisse, the Dauphine, these kinds of races are my favorite races where there are some mountains, some flat stages and normally there's a time trial or a prologue. That's the goal, to improve on those races.”

De Bod is the latest confirmation for EF, which also sees the arrival of Mikkel Honore (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Richard Carapaz and Andrey Amador (Ineos Grenadiers) for 2023.

Departures include Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) and the retirement of Sebastian Langveld. Michael Valgren will race at the development team as he recovers from injury. Rigoberto Uran will stay, while a few more riders still have their respective futures to be revealed.

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