Lewis Askey is set to move up from the Groupama-FDJ Continental team to the WorldTour squad in 2022, where he will be riding alongside fellow Briton Jake Stewart as a part of a young and building group for the Classics.
The 20-year-old Askey, who raced with Stewart in the Continental team in 2020, has signed a two year deal with the World Tour team.
“With the Conti team, he has often done the job of placing his leaders, and this is also what we will ask of him,” Groupama-FDJ sports director, Yvon Madiot, said in a statement. “He has raced with us several times and has always shown good performances. He and Jake have a great chemistry and we want to use that."
Stewart shifted into the WorldTour ranks at the end of 2020 with some impressive results, taking second at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and making it into the top ten a number of times, including a fourth overall at Etoile de Bessèges. Askey's however, will be stepping into the team with different objectives.
“At the Continental level, my role was to position my leaders: to drop them off at the right time in the right place,” said Askey. “We had a great relationship with Jake, and I'm happy to be working with him again at the top level.”
“The objective is to build a group for the Classics. I want to continue to work on this register to be a support for my teammates. I can also have my chance because you can never predict what will happen in a Classic. I think this is where I can be useful to the team.”
Askey, who won the Paris-Roubaix Juniors in 2018 has been with the Groupama-FDJ Continental squad since the start of 2020 and has also raced amongst the WorldTour team this year at races such as Scheldeprijs, the Bredene-Koksijde Classic and Cholet-Pays de la Loire.
“The links between the Conti team and the WorldTour team are very important, that's why I joined the team two years ago,” Askey said. “I had the opportunity to race several times at the higher level, I already know the staff and the riders, it is a definite advantage for next year. It's the same structure, the evolution will be smooth for me.”
Askey is the seventh rider who has made the shift up the ranks from the Continental, which started in 2019, to WorldTour squad with others including Stewart, Kevin Geniets, Simon Guglielmi, Alexys Brunel, Lars van den Berg and Clément Davy.
