EF Pro Cycling is generating plant-based watts with Oatly
A summer of victories for EF Pro Cycling
Founded in 2003, EF Pro Cycling is one of the three American cycling organisations competing in the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and they’ve had a phenomenal year.
In the men’s team, Richard Carapaz wore the iconic yellow jersey in stage 4, became the first Ecuadorian to win a stage, and finished the Tour on the podium with the polka dot jersey.
On the women’s team, Lotta Henttala, Noemi Rüegg, and Kristen Faulkner came seconds away from winning in the first five stages of the race.
It was in Paris that Kristen Faulkner shined the most this summer, bringing two Olympic gold medals home for Team USA in both track and road cycling.
EF Pro Cycling also received additional attention this summer when it announced an exciting new partnership two days before the men’s Tour de France.
Oatly is geared up to power EF Pro Cycling’s performances
Oatly, the world’s largest oat drink company, entered into a multi-year partnership with EF Pro Cycling. They are now the “Official Performance Partner” of both the men’s and women’s teams, with the latter now riding as “EF-Oatly-Cannondale”.
Through this partnership, they will incorporate dairy-free products into the athletes' diets, demonstrating how plant-based nutrition can power the world’s best athletes.
During the 2024 edition of the Tour de Frances Femmes avec Zwift, the EF-Oatly-Cannondale team were dairy-free and benefited from Oatly’s products.
“A dairy-free diet is compatible with high performance. Food science has shown us that nutritional diversity can be met in a dairy-free diet, allowing an athlete to have an excellent diet while going dairy-free without problems.”
Anna Carceller, Team Nutritionist at EF Pro Cycling
Some of the benefits of going dairy-free highlighted by the team include reduced inflammation and the ability to recover faster in between stages.
Bringing more people on the plant-based breakaway
More widely, this partnership demonstrates how sports organisations can use the power of sponsorship to create waves of climate action.
By having a company like Oatly as its performance partner, EF Pro Cycling sends a message that plant-based nutrition and performance can go hand in hand.
“One of our key objectives is to bring the Oatly magic to more people and this partnership with EF Pro Cycling is certainly geared towards that. As one of the most popular and watched sports globally, we’re excited to show the world how dairy-free products can be an integral part of professional athlete and non-athlete diets alike.”
John Schoolcraft, Chief Creative Officer at Oatly
It’s a particularly important message, as oat drinks require, on average, nearly 12 times less land, 13 times less water and release 3.5 times less greenhouse gas emissions per litre than dairy milk.
Even though oat drinks are less emissions-intensive than dairy milk, Oatly still aims to reduce their carbon footprint per litre produced by 70% before 2029.
From a performance and environmental point of view, this will be a partnership to follow, and Wavezero will bring you all the latest news on how EF Pro Cycling and Oatly are advancing sustainability in sports.
