“Ben Carries The Stage-Hunting Brief, Richard Carries The Closing-Week Mountain Card, And This Is The Most Explicit Two-Card Opportunist Roster The American Argyle Squad Have Ever Assembled For A Grande Boucle” — EF Education-EasyPost Confirm Full 2026 Tour de France Eight-Rider Squad
Thursday late morning Girona. Fifty-eight days from the 4 July Lille Grande Départ, EF Education-EasyPost have closed their 2026 Tour de France eight-rider squad on the most explicit two-card opportunist brief the American argyle WorldTeam have ever taken to the Grande Boucle. Squad reads Healy, Carapaz, Powless, Asgreen, Van den Berg, Valgren, Honoré, Sweeny.
Healy 5/2 the breakaway-stage outright on the closing internal market read — the shortest pre-Tour breakaway-card price the Irishman has carried into a Grande Départ window since the 2024 maillot à pois reading. The Tuesday-evening Cannondale SuperSix Evo equipment-lock pivot through to the closing-week alpine roster has Healy on a single climber's TT chassis brief and zero closing pre-Tour calendar additions, the cleanest breakaway-specialist build window the American squad have run.
Carapaz 33/1 GC outright, 12/1 the maillot à pois closing-week card — the Ecuadorian's first Tour de France roster since the 2023 podium-adjacent ride. The Tuesday-evening Girona ride-out closing-form lock has the 2019 Giro d'Italia winner on a single high-altitude block at Tignes through 6-22 June and a closing pre-Tour Mont Ventoux recon pull on 28 June, the second consecutive year EF have run a single-climber GC card alongside a stage-hunting twin brief.
Powless on the post-2024 single-card breakaway and double-stage-hunting brief, with the closing-week Pyrenean pivot the Colorado native's principal opportunist window. The 31-year-old's 22/1 maillot à pois card the secondary KOM book read on the post-Carapaz market shape, with the squad's combined polka-dot probability now 18% — the highest pre-Tour two-card KOM line EF have banked at the sixty-days-out checkpoint since the 2023 Bauke Mollema-Powless brief.
Asgreen the closing-week TT and breakaway-rouleur card, Van den Berg the field-sprint and Stage 1 Lille opportunist book on a 33/1 first-yellow card. Valgren and Honoré the closing-week classics-engine block, Sweeny the closing-week mountain-domestique card behind Carapaz on the closing two Pyrenean stages. Squad average climber-watt block on the closing internal model the highest single-roster reading EF have carried into a Tour de France since the 2022 Carapaz-Powless dual-card brief.
The closing eight-rider build window passed the Wednesday-evening medical signon at the Girona service course at 18:30 local, with all eight riders through the closing pre-Tour calendar lock and zero withdrawals carried inside the closing 72-hour confirmation window. Healy's closing pre-Tour calendar reads Critérium du Dauphiné 7-14 June and a closing Mont Ventoux ride-out on 27 June, Carapaz's closing pre-Tour calendar locks Tour de Suisse 14-21 June and a closing Tignes altitude block 22-30 June.
The Cannondale SuperSix Evo equipment platform locks the closing roster through the closing-week alpine block, with Vision Metron 60 wheelset on the closing TT pull and the new Cannondale Hollowgram disc-brake Si chassis on the closing Stage 19 Briancon-Albertville mountain TT card. The closing-roster aerodynamic-profile read on the post-eve-of-eve internal Cannondale wind-tunnel block the cleanest closing aero-position lock EF have carried into a Tour de France build window.
The closing-confirmation press window opens at the Girona service course at 14:00 Thursday local with Healy and Carapaz the lead two-rider podium walk, the closing pre-Tour roster confirmation block scheduled to close at 16:30 with all eight riders through the closing media-handlers' brief. Fifty-eight days and the squad-confirmation window now passes to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and the closing pre-Tour Roglič-Evenepoel-Lipowitz triple-card brief.