British rider Scott Thwaites has signed for Belgian squad Corendon-Circus according to reports in Het Nieuwsblad.
The 29-year-old Yorkshireman will join the Pro Continental outfit on a one year deal after spending 2019 with UK domestic squad Vitus Pro Cycling.
The move will see Thwaites return to the European peloton after he joined NettApp Endura for the 2013 season. He stayed with the squad as it morphed into Bora-Argon18, then spent two seasons at WorldTour level with Dimension Data.
He found success in his first year with the African team, finishing 10th at Strade Bianche, and riding the Tour de France, where he finished 107th in his second Grand Tour.
Starting 2018 with 13th place at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, he suffered multiple serious injuries in a training crash which ruined his year, and he left the team at the end of the year.
Despite considering retirement, Thwaites joined Continental outfit Vitus for this year, with seventh place in the European Games and eighth overall at the Tour de Yorkshire the standout results.
His abilities in classics-style races have brought Thwaites most success over the years. He has three top ten places at the gnarly Dutch race Ronde van Drenthe to his credit, was 3rd at the 2015 Nokere Koerse, but it was the 2016 season where he experienced his best results with a string of top 20 finishes that spring.
Eighth place at that year’s Dwars door Vlaanderen came just days after a memorable second place in a grimy edition of Le Samyn. There he spent much of the closing 20km alone, chasing eventual winner Niki Terpstra (Etixx-Quickstep).
Thwaites is the third Brit on the Belgian squad, joining Alex Richardson and Ben Tullett. Previously better known as a cyclocross team, Corendon-Circus is expanding for 2020 and Thwaites is likely to ride in support of superstar Mathieu van der Poel in this year’s classics.
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