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EF Education-EasyPost have continued their mini-youth revolution through the switch window, including one other neo-pro for 2024 within the type of 19-year-old Lukas Nerurkar.
The Trinity Racing rider is the third rider to make the step up from the Continental improvement group for the brand new season, following Luke Lamperti (Soudal-QuickStep) and Finlay Pickering (Bahrain Victorious) to the WorldTour.
Nerurkar, son of Olympic marathon runner Richard Nerurkar, is the fifth new face at EF for 2024, becoming a member of Saint Piran’s Jack Rootkin-Grey (aged 20), Dutchman Jardi Christian van der Lee (22), Hagens Berman Axeon’s Darren Rafferty (20), and Archie Ryan (21), who strikes up from Jumbo-Visma’s improvement group.
This season, racing within the U23 ranks, Nerurkar gained a tricky hilly stage in Lombardia on the Giro Subsequent Gen, additionally profitable a mountain stage on the Orlen Nations Grand Prix. Again in February, he blended it up with the professionals, taking sixth and one of the best younger rider’s prize at O Gran Camiño.
“I believe I am a punchy climber,” Nerurkar mentioned in a press release launched by EF Schooling-EasyPost. “In the intervening time, that’s the means that I’m going. I climb fairly effectively and usually, on the finish of laborious days, I’ll nonetheless have a very good dash to win from a decreased group.
“I simply wish to be taught as a lot as I can,” he added, noting that the aggressive racing fashion of EF appeals to him. “It is going to be actually good to get expertise racing on the highest stage.
“It will be good to win some races, however I have not achieved a complete lot of racing but and assume the following few years will simply be about discovering out what sort of rider I’m and no matter I turn into, bettering in these areas, so I can actually carry out in races.”
In latest months, Nerurkar competed on the Tour de L’Avenir and the Road World Championships junior street race in Glasgow. Final 12 months he took on a number of pro-level races with Trinity, together with the Volta a Portugal and Tour of Britain.
Nerurkar, who grew up in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia earlier than transferring to Brighton, England when he was seven years outdated, recalled how he received his begin in biking after making the swap from operating.
“Some pals came visiting from the UK and introduced some biking equipment over for me,” he mentioned. “I used to be in a jersey and bib shorts that had been far too large for me, however simply cherished sporting them and using.
“My sister did operating. In Ethiopia, it’s uncommon to do biking. Virtually everybody takes up operating as an alternative, however on the bike, I might simply go a bit farther and quicker.”
EF Schooling-EasyPost boss Jonathan Vaughters mentioned that Nerurkar is a punchy rider with a quick end, although admitted it is nonetheless early days to guage whether or not he’ll blossom right into a one-day specialist or a stage racer.
“Lukas has clearly inherited that unimaginable cardio capability from his father,” Vaughters mentioned. “He has additionally confirmed that he’s fairly punchy and fast, with a very good end. He’s tactically astute, as you noticed together with his stage wins on the Child Giro and Orlen Nations Grand Prix.
“I do not know whether or not he’s going to be a stage racer or a one-day racer. I do know that he can go uphill and is aware of the right way to scent a end line.”
One other key rider locked down as Bettiol renews
The information of Nerurkar’s signing is the most recent transfer made by EF Schooling-EasyPost to spherical out their 2024 racing roster. At present, 21 riders are publically confirmed as signed or contracted for subsequent season, with Michael Valgren’s step again up from the squad’s improvement group additionally confirmed following an extended restoration from a damaged pelvis final June.
Key riders together with GC males Richard Carapaz and Hugh Carthy, time trialist Stefan Bissegger, and hilly Classics stars Ben Healy and Neilson Powless are already contracted for subsequent season or past. Magnus Cort, who heads to Uno-X is as but the one confirmed departure from the group.
The group have just lately re-signed Alberto Bettiol to a brand new deal, too, preserving the previous Tour of Flanders champion on the group for an additional 12 months.
The 29-year-old, who in January scored his sole win of the season on the Tour Down Below prologue, has spent all however one 12 months of his 10 within the peloton inside the setup. He mentioned it was a simple choice to resume together with his “second household”.
“My historical past as an expert bicycle owner relies on this group and the mentality of this group,” Bettiol mentioned. “I’ve grown up with them. It is like a second household for me once I go to the races. They make me really feel at dwelling. I have been rising up with the identical individuals for nearly ten years now and I nonetheless see extra alternatives for my progress.
“This group has helped me develop up as a rider and likewise as an individual. This facet was necessary for me once I determined to resume with the group. It is like I’ve began an extended journey, and I do not really feel that I’ve reached the end line but. I nonetheless must work; I nonetheless must develop and finally that is why I stayed with the group.
“We struggle the issues collectively and face the difficulties. It was easy for me to determine to stick with this group.”
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