Team Katusha have announced the signing of an agreement with Estonian rider Rein Taaramäe.

Taaramäe (28) is a born stage race rider being a good climber as well as a good time triallist. This month he won the Overall Classification in his last two stage races, the Tour of Burgos and the Arctic Race of Norway. Rein Taaramäe also has a Vuelta stage win (2011), two national road titles (2009, 2013), three national time trial titles (2009, 2011, 2012) and the Overall Classification of the Tour de l'Ain (2009) on his palmares. Moreover, he finished on the podiums of the Tour de Romandie (2009), Tour of Catalunya (2010) and Tour of Turkey (2014).

"I am so happy to come to this strong team. Team Katusha is a winning team in 2015. You could feel this atmosphere at races when hanging around Katusha in 2015. What convinced me the most to make the move was the fact that the team directors and the team manager really believe in me. I will be able to obtain more results than I have so far. They have convinced me that I can still improve. These past years I have had so much bad luck in my career with mononucleosis, fractures and other health issues. Now I am back. I feel that I can start my second career. Katusha believes in me and I will not disappoint them. Grand Tours, smaller stage races or classics, it doesn't matter. I will be good everywhere. My goal is to work for guys like Joaquim Rodriguez, but also for others. As long as the team wins, it doesn't matter if it is me or another rider who wins," said Rein Taaramäe.

"Rein Taaramäe is the type of rider we were looking for. The last months we worked hard on making our team stronger for the classics. We also needed to strengthen our team for the stage races. Rein has finished 11th in the Tour de France and that means a lot. His results, his power and endurance, but most of all his character match perfectly with our group. I believe we have not seen everything Rein has to give. I look forward to working with him in the near future, " said general manager of Team Katusha Viacheslav Ekimov.