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2025 Edition

Stage won 0
General Ranking 7
Competitors in race 8
Sporting managers : WEGELIUS Charles / SOUTHAM Tom

The history

The team formerly known as Garmin made its Tour de France debut in Brest in 2008. It is living proof that financial clout and programming are not the be-all and end-all of cycling in the 21st century. Although it has one of the most austere budgets in the division and often has to contend with the uncertainties clouding its future, it managed to place Rigoberto Urán on the second step of the podium in 2017. Pink-clad Education First wrote a new chapter in the adventure as title sponsor, ushering in a more stable period since 2018. The origin story of this American team lies in the anti-doping philosophy championed by manager Jonathan Vaughters and David Millar, a rider who rose from the ashes following a salutary break.   Christian Vande Velde's fourth place in Paris in 2018 heralded another three unexpected top 10 finishes: Bradley Wiggins, fourth in 2009, Ryder Hesjedal, seventh in 2010 and Tom Danielson, ninth in 2011. Andrew Talansky's tenth place in 2013 put the team back on track after a wretched performance in 2012, when it was involved in a mass crash in Lorraine. In 2014, after winning the Critérium du Dauphiné, the American pit bull was forced to quit the Tour with a heavy heart and a battered body, but the team staged an emotional comeback with Ramūnas Navardauskas's victory in Bergerac.

  The outfit from Boulder, Colorado, then entered a dry spell that would last until Urán's bike thrust carried the day in Chambéry in 2017. In 2015, Talansky finished eleventh overall and second in Pra-Loup, Dan Martin was second in Mûr-de-Bretagne and Cauterets, and Hesjedal finished third on the Alpe d'Huez. Success evaded the team in the late 2010s, as a conservative Urán settled for seventh in 2019. In 2018, the American squad was the talk of the town when Lawson Craddock became the first ever rider to rank dead last in the general classification from the first stage to the last, as he soldiered on to Paris after cracking his shoulder blade in a crash in the opening stage. The 2020 Tour de France was buzzing with excitement over the debut of rising star Sergio Higuita, but it was fellow Colombian Daniel Martínez who stole the show with his victory on Puy Mary. Higuita scored a near-miss in Quillan (third) in 2021. He finished the Tour (eighth on the Col du Portet and seventh at Luz-Ardiden) in better shape than Rigoberto Urán, who slipped from second place overall on the eve of the Mont Ventoux to tenth by the time the peloton reached Paris. Before striking gold with a stage win in the Vuelta, the battle-hardened Colombian floundered in 25th place in the Tour, where he was overshadowed by his American teammate Neilson Powless, who finished twelfth overall after coming within a whisker of the yellow jersey two days in a row: once behind Wout van Aert following the cobblestone stage and once behind Tadej Pogačar in Longwy. Alberto Bettiol, second in Mende, failed to replicate Magnus Cort's triumph in Megève. The Dane did not wait until this success to compensate for the flop of Stefan Bissegger, who crashed twice in the time trial in Copenhagen. He broke away every day in his country, becoming wildly popular among the fans, and continuing the tradition when the race headed back to France to make sure he went over every little climb in first place and keep the polka-dot jersey until stage 9!  

Signing the Olympic gold medallist Richard Carapaz, third in the 2021 Tour de France, was supposed to allow the team to move on from Urán (71st in the 2023 Tour). Alas, the Ecuadorian hit the deck in the very first stage and was a DNS the next day. The Englishman James Shaw also seemed to be jinxed, as he burst onto the scene in the mountains with fifth place in Cauterets and seventh on the Grand Colombier, only to be knocked out of the race by the same crash that took down Romain Bardet two thirds into the Tour. The 2021 Olympic gold medallist achieved redemption in the 2024 Tour, pulling on the yellow jersey for the very first time in Turin at the end of stage 3, emerging victorious from stage 17 to SuperDévoluy, snatching the polka-dot jersey at Isola 2000 in stage 19 and carrying it all the way to the final podium. He has since taken fourth place in the 2024 Vuelta and third in the 2025 Giro, giving the lie to those who proclaimed that fighting for GC was a futile endeavour in the twilight of his career!

  • Final victory0
  • Stages victories11
  • Yellows Jerseys8
  • Other races Won3

Overall wins: 0
Podium finishes: 1

  • 2017: Rigoberto Urán, second

Stage wins: 11

  • 2011: team time trial in Les Essarts, Tyler Farrar in Redon and Thor Hushovd in Lourdes and Gap

  • 2012: David Millar in Annonay-Davézieux

  • 2013: Dan Martin in Bagnères-de-Bigorre

  • 2014: Ramūnas Navardauskas in Bergerac

  • 2017: Rigoberto Urán in Chambéry

  • 2020: Daniel Martínez on Puy Mary

  • 2022: Magnus Cort in Megève

  • 2024: Richard Carapaz at SuperDévoluy

Secondary classification wins: 3

  • 2011: team classification

  • 2024: Richard Carapaz (mountains classification and most combative rider)

Yellow jerseys: 8

  • 2011: Thor Hushovd, seven days

  • 2024: Richard Carapaz, one day

STARTS: 17 (since 2008)

A FIGURE
2: the highest place in the general classification of the Tour de France attained by Jonathan Vaughters' men so far: Rigoberto Urán in 2017, building on the fourth-place finishes of Christian Vande Velde in 2008 and Bradley Wiggins in 2009.

MILESTONES

  • 4 July 2011: the day after his dream of winning the team time trial comes true, Jonathan Vaughters savours the triumph of his homegrown sprinter Tyler Farrar in Redon as well as Thor Hushovd's yellow jersey.

  • 13 July 2012: David Millar, the living embodiment of the team's anti-doping policy, achieves his ultimate redemption by reacquainting himself with success at the Tour in Annonay Davézieux.

  • 1 July 2024: Richard Carapaz holds on to the yellow jersey for a single day in a prelude to his victorious performance in the king of the mountains classification and combativity award.

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