Former Giro d’Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal has will leave Cannondale-Garmin for Trek Factory Racing this winter, his future employers confirmed on Twitter.
The Canadian will end his nine-year association with Slipstream Sports, owners of the Cannondale-Garmin team, with whom he won the Giro in 2012.
Trek teased fans with a series of facts about their new ‘major signing’ before announcing that it was Hesjedal who was joining the team.
1. This rider is from a country not currently represented in our roster.
— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) August 26, 2015
2. This rider's name is Norwegian for "town of the drying grass."
— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) August 26, 2015
3. This rider is a Grand Tour winner.
— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) August 26, 2015
4. This rider has previously ridden for Trek across multiple disciplines.
— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) August 26, 2015
Join us in welcoming @Ryder_Hesjedal to Trek Factory Racing! pic.twitter.com/gJZHbYvdAo
— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) August 26, 2015
Hesjedal has struggled to rediscover the form that took him to his only Grand Tour victory in recent years although he did finish in the top-10 of the Italian race in both 2014 and 15.
The signing will bolster Trek’s general classification hopes in the Grand Tours, with the team currently relying on Bauke Mollema and the often injured Frank Schleck.
Hesjedal rode to two consecutive second-place finishes on stages 19 and 20 of this year’s Giro to secure fifth place in the overall standings and also impressed in his ride up Alpe d’Huez at the Tour de France in July.
He will likely finish his final season with Cannondale-Garmin in his homeland at the Tour of Alberta and then the Grand Prix in Quebec and Montreal.
