Danny van Poppel signs two-year deal with LottoNL-Jumbo

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Almost a month after it was rumoured that Danny van Poppel was set to switch Team Sky for LottoNL-Jumbo, the Dutchman's move has been confirmed by the team. Van Poppel has penned a two-year deal with the Dutch squad after riding for Team Sky since the 2016 season.

Van Poppel says that sprinting will remain his primary focus – he will ride alongside Dylan Groenewegen, winner on the Champs Elysées at this year's Tour de France – but that the Classics are also a target.

"It's fantastic to join Team LottoNL-Jumbo. It's great to see how the team is developing sprinting, as sprinting is my main goal," van Poppel said.

"However, I'm looking very much forward to the classics too. I know that they suit me, although I wasn't really able to show that due to some bad luck over the last years."

The team expressed their pleasure at securing van Poppel for the forthcoming seasons. "We are proud that Van Poppel has chosen our team above others and that we now have two world-class sprinters within our team. We will make Danny even faster and make him a better cyclist," said team sports director Merijn Zeeman.

Still just 24 years old, van Poppel has been a professional since 2013 when he stepped up to the Vacansoleil-DCM team. Following the collapse of that team, he went on to spend two years a Trek-Segafredo before moving to Team Sky. In 2015, he won a stage of the Vuelta a España and he enjoyed a successful 2016 campaign with victories at the Vuelta a Burgos, the Tour de Yorkshire and the Arctic Race of Norway.

This season has been somewhat quieter. After, an early win at the prologue of the Herald Sun Tour in January, van Poppel did not find himself on the top step of the rostrum until the start of August at the Tour de Pologne.

According to a report in Sporza earlier this month, van Poppel has had a late call-up to the World Championships in Bergen after Dylan van Baarle had to pull out due to an injury.