{"id":488488,"date":"2026-02-20T21:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/488488\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T21:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:30:10","slug":"michael-leonard-on-getting-settled-into-ef-education-easypost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/488488\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Leonard on getting settled into EF Education-EasyPost"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spoke with Michael Leonard about a week after he wrapped up the Tour de la Provence<\/a> in France. It was his second stage race with EF Education-EasyPost. He transferred from Ineos Grenadiers following the past season. Leonard started his UCI WorldTour career with the British squad four years ago, so he\u2019s been adjusting to the new environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite different. I think we have one of the youngest average ages in the WorldTour. And so it\u2019s definitely a super motivated environment. Everyone\u2019s working really hard. Everyone\u2019s having a lot of fun,\u201d Leonard said. But despite the squad\u2019s public appearance as the easygoing, fun team, Leonard said everyone still knows how to get serious. \u201cYou have some freedom to do things your own way, but in the end, it\u2019s still professional cycling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tour Down Under<\/p>\n

Leonard had his first big test with the team at this year\u2019s Tour Down Under<\/a>, where he put on a show for Canadian fans by wearing the white jersey for most of the race. \u201cYeah, it was super nice. It was surprising. Actually, I wasn\u2019t meant to do the Tour Down Under at all until the middle of December. So we did our best to prepare for it, and actually, it was a bit better than I expected. So it was nice to be able to show myself a little bit and to start with the team,\u201d Leonard said.<\/p>\n

It was at this race that Leonard also got acquainted with the big social media footprint<\/a> of his new crew. \u201cOne difference is that there\u2019s a bit more emphasis on media. They had more media people there. There were more interviews. There was just more emphasis on that. So I think that\u2019s something to slowly get used to,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t really like much attention at all. I\u2019d rather just be a cyclist. But it\u2019s also part of my job. And the sponsors need to get something out of what we do. So I respect that and I do my best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

One feature of the new team that Leonard might not sync with is its strong mix of alternative races, such as Unbound or big FKTs, essentially anything Lachlan Morton is up to. \u201cYeah, I\u2019m a road cyclist. I\u2019m not anything else. I\u2019d be a liability if I tried to do anything beyond road racing, to be honest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Looking Ahead<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not all Instagram reels and gravel races over at EF Education-EasyPost. Leonard wants to earn his place at his first Grand Tour this season. \u201cThis year, I feel more of a sense of responsibility,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cI think there\u2019s more of an expectation that every rider sort of steps up and does good performances when it counts. And so, yeah, I need to work towards doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the good news is he\u2019s in the running for this year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia, so most of his riding from now will be in preparation for that. \u201cNothing\u2019s 100 per cent until you start the race, but I\u2019m on the list for it, so we\u2019ll see,\u201d Leonard said.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, his big goal for the second half of the season will be the world championships in Montreal this fall.<\/p>\n

With Leonard holding the Canadian time trial champion jersey and all the controversy surrounding Derek Gee-West\u2019s Canadian road race champion jersey, I had to get Leonard\u2019s thoughts on who wore it better. \u201cYeah, the new one\u2019s better to be fair,\u201d he said, referring to the second iteration of Gee-West\u2019s jersey by Lidl-Trek, \u201cbut I still back mine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I spoke with Michael Leonard about a week after he wrapped up the Tour de la Provence in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-488488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}