Nathan Haas will leave a Katusha-Alpecin team mired in uncertainty and ride for Cofidis next year, signing a two-year contract with the WorldTour-hopeful French team.
Haas joined Katusha in 2018 after spending two seasons with Dimension Data and three with what’s now EF Education First, but has struggled for results. His only victory came on stage 2 of the 2018 Tour of Oman, and he has been unable to build on his fourth place finish at the 2017 Amstel Gold Race.
The team are yet to assure the funds to continue in 2020 but Haas was already looking to move on, and liked the sound of the project developing at Cofidis under Cedric Vasseur, who took over as manager in 2018.
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The French team, created in 1997, are aiming to return to the top tier of the sport and have already stated their intent in the transfer market with the acquisitions of Elia Viviani and Guillaume Martin.
"I’ve always liked being in teams that have a strong drive to progress, to get better and take a next step. That’s exactly the spirit with Cofidis and Cedric Vasseur and that’s what attracted me," Haas said.
"What I like about this team is the opportunity to take chances in each race, to give everything so as not to have any regrets. At the Tour de France, they were pretty much in every breakaway. Naturally, I really want to ride Amstel Gold Race and the Ardennes Classics, but I also and above all want to put myself at the service of the team, notably Elia, to help them achieve new successes."
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