Skujins, Moschetti, Brambilla, Mosca extend for two years with Trek-Segafredo

Trek-Segafredo have announced two-year contract extensions for Toms Skujiņš, Matteo Moschetti, Gianluca Brambilla and Jacopo Mosca, while veteran Koen de Kort has been handed a year's contract and will start his fifth season with the team in 2021.

De Kort is currently captaining a young Trek-Segafredo squad at the Vuelta a España, and the news means that the team's younger riders will be able to benefit from the 38-year-old Dutchman's experience for at least another season.

Like De Kort, sprinter Matteo Moschetti had also been racing at the Vuelta, but finished outside of the time limit on stage 7 to Villanueva de Valdegovia, and so the 24-year-old Italian's year has come to a premature end.

Toms Skujiņš joined the team in 2018, and the 2019 Latvian road race champion said that he feels very much at home with the US team, and so gladly put pen to paper on a two-year contract extension.

"Ever since I joined Trek-Segafredo, I've been really happy with how the team has supported and put confidence in me, and helped me to grow as an athlete," he said in a press release on Monday. "I'm especially happy during this odd season to sign for two more years and stay with this team that I've been part of for three years now.

"It's especially nice because of the way Trek, as a company, supports the team. It's not just the team, but also the company that we're involved with. I'll definitely miss going back to Trek headquarters in Wisconsin this year to play ice hockey with the Trek employees," Skujiņš said.

Of his ambitions for the next two seasons, the 29-year-old added: "One of the things I really want to do is to finally race the Giro d'Italia. I want to keep going in the same direction I have been; occasionally, I get to be road captain and sometimes I get to go for results, be that in the Ardennes or in some stage races. Overall, I want to be as useful to the team as I can be, no matter what the race."

Climber Gianluca Brambilla – winner of stages at both the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España in 2016 while still with Etixx-QuickStep – ended his 2020 season ahead of the final week of this year's Giro when he was forced to pull out due to the effects of a crash earlier in the race.

All-rounder Jacopo Mosca, meanwhile – who joined Trek-Segafredo midway through the 2019 season – completed the Giro in 31st place overall, with the 27-year-old Italian finishing third on stage 19 to Asti after being part of the day's successful breakaway.

"In a season like the one that is about to end, we thought it was important to send a signal of confidence and incentive to the whole group," said Trek-Segafredo general manager Luca Guercilena.

"Year after year, we have been able to consolidate a sports project that has given important signs of improvement and results, especially this year. We have chosen to give continuity to a balanced mix of youth and experience as a means to make a further quality leap," he said.