Following a breakthrough spring which has seen him win a stage and end among the many high 20 on the Giro d’Italia, Valentin Paret-Peintre has reportedly attracted the eye of Soudal-QuickStep because the Belgian crew seems to be to strengthen the climbing core round crew chief Remco Evenepoel.
According to 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 received 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 way in which.
He additionally took second place on the penultimate stage of the race over Monte Grappa, albeit over two minutes behind Giro winner Tadej Pogačar. Last month he completed fourth general on the Tour of the Alps.
With Soudal-QuickStep searching for to construct the crew round Evenepoel, Paret-Peintre is seen as a robust choice to bolster a assist squad that features the likes of Ilan Van Wilder, Mauri Vansevenant, and Mikel Landa.
Decathlon AG2R may see a lot of modifications to its stage race roster, with Ben O’Connor additionally quickly to resolve 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’s his first race again because the mass crash he suffered at Itzulia Basque Country in April together with Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič, although he has mentioned that he will not be in high form to focus on a excessive GC putting forward of the Tour de France.