Belgian heads back to former team after leaving Sunweb early
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Edward Theuns (Team Sunweb)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Edward Theuns on his Team Sunweb debut(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)
Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) celebrates his first WorldTour victory (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Team Sunweb at the 2018 Tour de France team presentation: Michael Matthews, Tom Dumoulin, Nikias Arndt, Simon Geschke, Chad Haga, Soren Kragh Andersen, Edward Theuns and Laurens ten Dam(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Edward Theuns (Sunweb)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Edward Theuns will return to Trek-Segafredo next season on a one-year contract after a year away, the team has announced. The move comes after Team Sunweb confirmed earlier this week that Theuns had agreed to end his contract with them prematurely.
"I can't wait to work with a lot of people that I know from the past and to be part of this big family again,” Theuns said in a short social media post published by the team.
After two years with the Topsport-Vlaanderen team, Theuns stepped up to WorldTour level with Trek-Segafredo team in 2016. With the team, he enjoyed a strong 2016 Classics campaign and went on to win stages of the Baloise Belgium Tour and make his Tour de France debut, though he was forced to abandon and end his season early after crashing in the second week time trial.
Theuns’ second season with the American-registered squad saw him take a step forward with a top-10 finish at Paris-Roubaix, second at Halle Ingoogigem and stage wins at the BinckBank Tour and the Tour of Turkey.
His move to Sunweb was announced in August last season and his signing was an attempt to build up Sunweb’s Classics squad. However, the 27-year-old struggled throughout the spring and that would continue through the rest of the season. He concluded his 2018 campaign at the Tour of Turkey earlier this month where two sixth places were the best that he could do.
On Wednesday, Sunweb made the surprise announcement that Theuns would not stay with the team for the forthcoming season, a decision they said was mutual. The statement issued by the team said that the differing visions of cycling made it best for them to part ways with the Belgian rider.
"It has been a tough year for me, both physically and mentally with some crashes and bad luck," Theuns said. "I tried to adapt to the team’s way of working, but it didn't really work out for me. We differ in vision so we decided that it would be best to end the contract. I now look forward to a new chapter in my career."
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Theuns joins William Clarke, Giulio Ciccone, Alex Kirsch, Richie Porte and Matteo Moschetti as new riders on the books for Trek-Segafredo in 2019.
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