Team LottoNL-Jumbo will strengthen its 2017 forces with Norwegian Amund Grøndahl Jansen. The U23 national champion will leave Norwegian Team Joker, where he developed as a classics rider with a good sprint. Team LottoNL-Jumbo wants to continue to improve in this area.

”I'm definitely not a climber, I’m a sprinter and a classics rider,” Jansen said. “I hope to develop myself in the spring classics with the help of the experienced men in the team."

Jansen broke through this season when he won the U23 Roompot ZLM Tour, a stage race in the Netherlands. He also won the overall classification of the Tour de Gironde and a stage in the Tour de l'Avenir, which gave him the leader's jersey for three days. He closed the year with a fifth place in the Under 23 World Championship.

Now he makes the step from a continental level to a WorldTour team.

"I'm very curious about this Dutch adventure,” said Jansen. "From the first moment I had contact with the team, I knew I’d be able to settle in well. As in Scandinavia, the team is very familiar. The Dutch culture is much closer to ours than the French, Spanish or Italian culture."

He is studying Dutch to ease the transition. "It's a tricky language, though it seems much like the Norwegian. The problem is mainly that we use the same words for different things. That makes it difficult.” He will be able to practice in Girona, Spain, where he lives with his new team-mates Alexey Vermeulen and Robert Gesink.

‘He has a good sprint’

Sports Director Nico Verhoeven followed Amund Grøndahl Jansen over the last years. "We had close contact with his Norwegian team about his development,” Verhoeven said. “He fits in our team because we want to develop young talents to the top."

"Amund has a good sprint in his legs and can definitely handle the spring classics. We want to continue to work on these aspects with him. Also, he will be a good addition in the sprint train and in the classics team to support our leaders.”