EF’s Two New American Pros Prove You Don’t Have to Be a Teenage Prodigy To Hit the WorldTour

Gavin Sherry was a collegiate runner barely a year ago. Gavin Hlady paid his dues in the gutters trying to turn U23 titles into a pro contract.

Now both Americans are heading to the WorldTour with EF Education-EasyPost in 2027.

Meet the “Two Gavins.” No teenage superstar billing here. They didn’t even start racing bikes until they were almost 20. Yet next season, they’ll be lining up alongside team leaders Neilson Powless and Ben Healy.

“Joining this team is an unbelievable opportunity,” Sherry said. “And to think that just eight months ago I was a Cat. 3 racer, trying to work my way through the system.”

At 22 and 23, respectively, they’re hardly ancient, but in a sport when the top teenage sensations already have coaches and agents, their promotions stand out.

That Sherry could graduate from college and Hlady spend a few years cutting his teeth on the U23 circuit proves that it’s never too late.

“Over the last few years, I always thought joining the WorldTour was possible, but I never thought it was guaranteed,” Hlady said. “So having this opportunity means so much to me.”

With today’s obsession with youth, there’s almost a feeling among some riders that if they’re not racing in the WorldTour before their 20th birthday they’ve somehow missed the train.

Hlady earns his shot the hard way

Remco Evenepoel and Quinn Simmons both helped blaze the teen-to-pro pathway after each won the junior world titles, in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Teams have been hunting for the next one ever since.

There’s a bidding war for the most-prized junior riders. Spanish sensation Benjamín Noval is heading to Netcompany-Ineos at 18 with reportedly one of the biggest neo-pro contracts in history.

So that’s what’s so unique about the “Two Gavins.”

Neither spent his teenage years being groomed for a WorldTour debut.

Sherry was a collegiate runner at Stanford who turned to bikes after an injury. Hlady only started racing three years ago with Mike’s Bikes p/b Equator Coffees in the Bay Area.

They both came relatively late to cycling, and Hlady’s promotion comes after a steady string of solid results in the U23 ranks.

“The goal this year was to have a good spring, and after that the team came to me with an offer,” Hlady said. “It was nice to sign early, but I think that my top 10s in Europe really helped my case. When I was called up at various races earlier in the year, I tried to be as solid as possible as a teammate.”

A two-time U.S. U23 road champion, Hlady rode as an EF stagiaire in late 2024 before spending two more seasons with the development team.

EF’s head of scouting Sebastian Langeveld said he liked what he saw when Hlady raced with the senior team.

“It’s a bit early to determine where he will end up as a rider, but he still has a lot of untapped potential, and we’re going to work with him on getting the best out of himself in the coming season,” he said of Hlady. “It’s about taking our time with the young riders and not rushing them.”

Collegiate runner to Strava crusher

Sherry pinches himself at his meteoric rise to the WorldTour ranks.

In 2025, his promising middle-distance running career at Stanford was looking untenable after a string of frustrating stress fracture injuries, and he took up cycling as part of his rehab.

He was soon crushing Strava records on the Bay Area’s Old La Honda Road on a borrowed Specialized. That got him noticed, and he was picked up by USA Cycling’s development team early in 2026 and later joined EF Education-Aevolo.

“At the start of the year, I had no idea I’d have progressed so quickly,” Sherry said. “I really thought that if turning pro was on the cards, it would be something further down the line by a couple of years, but I had my lucky breakthrough thanks to USA Cycling, and from there things really took off.”

After completing his computer science degree at Stanford University, he was 11th overall at the Peace Race before second place on GC at the Oberösterreich Rundfahrt. That put him on the EF radar.

“The Tour de l’Avenir was super hectic, with the most crashes I’ve ever seen, and it was hard to get used to that, especially in the crosswinds,” Sherry said. “That showed me how much I need to work on positioning. It showed what level I need to achieve on that front, and I’ve got full faith that I’ll be able to do that.”

Now based in Girona, Sherry is working with Creed and taking descending lessons from former pro Jeremy Hunt.

The American pipeline still delivers

Their promotions into the WorldTour with EF also show how U.S. talent is still finding its way to the top of the sport despite a moribund domestic racing scene.

A decade or so ago, these guys might have a raced domestically, but those chances have steadily evaporated as races and teams have shuttered over the past 10 years.

Top U.S. talent is still landing in the WorldTour, but the pathway has changed with the times. The support system is still there for promising talent in the junior and U23 ranks thanks to USA Cycling and development teams.

EF linked up with Creed’s Aevolo in 2025 to help mine untapped young gems, and both Sherry and Hlady were quick to thank the ex-pro for his backing even if they didn’t come with a junior racing pedigree.

“I owe a lot to our team manager at EF Education-Aevolo Michael Creed, and the team founder Steven van der Zwan,” Hlady said.

Those promotions come during a broader bit of rebuild for EF Education-EasyPost.

The team cut loose top-of-the-ticket star Richard Carapaz and some other veterans. Without an bottomless super team budget, the Argyle Army is reloading on youth.

Along with Hlady and Sherry, the team is promoting two more riders — Roberto Capello and Tomos Pattinson — from its EF Education-Aevolo development squad for 2027.

Hlady and Sherry earned their WorldTour shot in their early 20s, proof that American riders can still make it without being tipped for greatness as a teenager.