Matt White spent time with Movistar after his mid-season departure last year from Jayco-AlUla, where he was head sports director, but has now joined EF Education-EasyPost
Having signed Eddie Dunbar to Jayco AlUla as a so-called “moneyball rider”, then to see him win two Vuelta stages and place 7th overall at the Giro, Matt White has now thrown his lot in with EF Education-EasyPost.
White (52), an ex-pro who was Australian national champion, will in his new role manage Ireland’s Ben Healy and Darren Rafferty, as well as explosive climber Archie Ryan, when the Wicklow rider returns from injury.
And he says he is really looking forward to that sports director job, especially gunning for Monument success and stage wins in Grand Tours, rather than riding for GC, which he believes will be exciting.
News the team is set to pursue that Grand Tour stage win approach in 2027 is especially positive for Healy, given his style of racing.
However, Rafferty is now at the stage where he could win big from a breakaway, and the same applies to Ryan when he gets back.
“It feels like coming full circle,” White said of having started his career as a manager with the team back in 2008, when it was Garmin-Chipotle, with Irish rider Dan Matin, them aged 21, in the roster.
“I’ve obviously spent a lot of time away, but it’s a team that I’ve always kept very close to my heart. It’s exciting to come back to a team that has so many talented young riders and a lot of ambition to develop this group over a long period of time.”
White has most recently spent time on the management side with Movistar, but he was the lead director with Jayco AlUla for years before they parted ways midway through 2025, in a very surprising development.
But he now says he is ready to get stuck in with his new team, which is intent on aggressive racing towards stage wins.
“I think the beauty of going for stages is that it’s all or nothing,” he said. “You’re all in for the day, then you might have a day or two when you’re not, and then you’re all in again.
“Especially in a Grand Tour, I think that’s a really exciting mindset and way to approach a race. The most exciting thing about this group is that it’s such a young, talented team.
“You just don’t know what these athletes are capable of on any given day. Nurturing those guys and getting the best out of them, both as individuals and as a group, is an exciting challenge for me.
“Working with riders who don’t yet know where their ceiling is, and helping them discover what they’re capable of, is something that gets me up in the morning.
“My passion is getting the most out of people. Cycling has changed a lot, but there’s one thing that hasn’t changed: you’re dealing with human beings.
“Getting the most out of people is something I really enjoy. I think if, in 12 months’ time, we can sit back and look at the season and see that we’ve featured prominently throughout the year, especially at the pointy end of the races that matter…
“Then that’s a measure of success. And those races are the three Grand Tours and a lot of the Monuments.”