Paris (AFP)
Tom Dumoulin, winner of the Giro 2017 and Geraint Thomas's runner-up in the 2018 Tour de France, has left the Sunweb squad, the German team and the Dutch rider announced on Monday.
"After an incredible eight-year track record of success, Team Sunweb and Tom Dumoulin are going to separate at the end of the 2019 season," said the Sunweb team in a statement posted on its website while there remained two years of contract to the Dutchman, 28 years old.
According to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Dumoulin will race in the yellow and black colors of the Dutch Jumbo-Visma team too - for the next three seasons.
Package this year on the Tour de France because of a knee injury, which had already forced him to retire in full Giro, Dumoulin join Jumbo a team far more armed than Sunweb to finally win in Paris after his second place in 2018.
"After the disappointment of missing the Tour and finding myself at home in my couch, I began to think that a new environment could be refreshing," says the former world champion against the watch (2017).
"It really hurts to leave," says the native of Maastricht "My heart is here and we have achieved together great things that I am very proud of, and I proved with the Sunweb team that it is possible to win a Grand Tour with this team and I have no doubt that I could do it again with them. "
© 2019 AFP