Following a breakthrough spring which has seen him win a stage and end among the many prime 20 on the Giro d’Italia, Valentin Paret-Peintre has reportedly attracted the eye of Soudal-QuickStep because the Belgian crew appears to strengthen the climbing core round crew chief Remco Evenepoel.
In accordance with a report in Het Laatste Nieuws, the deal taking the 23-year-old Frenchman to QuickStep is all however official, together with his Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale contract set to run out on the finish of the season.
Third-year professional Paret-Peintre is the youthful brother of Aurélien, who gained a stage of the Giro d’Italia final yr. This time round, Valentin triumphed from the breakaway on stage 10 on the summit end of Bocca della Selva, beating Romain Bardet and Jan Tratnik on the best way.
He additionally took second place on the penultimate stage of the race over Monte Grappa, albeit over two minutes behind Giro winner Tadej Pogačar. Final month he completed fourth general on the Tour of the Alps.
With Soudal-QuickStep looking for to construct the crew round Evenepoel, Paret-Peintre is seen as a powerful choice to bolster a assist squad that features the likes of Ilan Van Wilder, Mauri Vansevenant, and Mikel Landa.
Decathlon AG2R may see quite a few modifications to its stage race roster, with Ben O’Connor additionally quickly to determine his future on the crew. Austria’s Felix Gall is because of lead Decathlon AG2R on the Tour de France after successful a mountain stage to Courchevel and ending eighth general.
Evenepoel will shortly make his racing return on the Critérium du Dauphiné (June 2-9), supported by Landa, Van Wilder, Casper Pedersen, James Knox, Antoine Huby, and Gianni Moscon.
It is his first race again because the mass crash he suffered at Itzulia Basque Nation in April together with Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič, although he has mentioned that he will not be in prime form to focus on a excessive GC putting forward of the Tour de France.
