Ten Dam linked to Giant-Alpecin

Laurens ten Dam looks set to remain in the WorldTour, swapping LottoNl-Jumbo for Giant-Alpecin in 2016. Ten Dam had been in discussions with several WorldTour and American teams, including UnitedHealthcare, but it appears he decided to stick closer to home with the German-registered squad, according to AD.nl. Neither rider nor team would confirm the transfer.

The agent for the popular Dutch rider, Joao Correia, told Cyclingnews in August that LottoNl-Jumbo had not extended Ten Dam's contract after his nine seasons with the organisation.

"We've not had an offer from Lotto so as of right now returning is not an option. We have three offers from three European WorldTour teams that we're considering but Lotto isn't one of them," Correia said in August. "The US angle is a left field idea but we need to find the right programme. There are a limited number of teams that he could do that with but it's a possibility."

Ten Dam, who turns 35 next month, was 9th in the Tour de France in 2014, and has a solid history as a climber but few victories to his name. He raced the Tour de France in service of teammate Robert Gesink this year, and was due to compete in the Vuelta a España but was hit by a car while training and suffered a fractured vertebrae.