EF signs junior world 'cross champ Agostinacchio
EF Education-EasyPost has announced the signing of junior cyclocross world champion Mattia Agostinacchio "on a long-term contract." The 18-year-old Italian, who won his junior world title in Liévin, France, earlier this year, has been delivering increasingly promising results on the road as well these past two years of racing in the junior ranks. He will continue to compete in both road and 'cross events as he joins his new team.
"This kid is crazy intelligent. He learned English from YouTube and TikTok, and that impressed me," EF team boss Jonathan Vaughters said in a statement. "The second thing that impressed me was that when I met and had dinner with his entire family, I got to know his background. That’s always very important when you’re taking on young riders. So, his dad is a police officer, his mom is a school teacher, and on the cycling side, he didn’t have a power meter until a year ago.
"He doesn’t have a deep history in cycling; he’s just a kid from the Italian mountains, and his dad’s love of mountain biking got him into the sport. His dad coached him from books, and his dad coached him to win at Worlds, and I can guarantee that no other kid at the Worlds had their dad coaching them as a side hobby before coming away with the rainbow jersey. To me, that tells me there’s a lot of untapped potential still to come."
