Cyclingnews has reported that Giant-Alpecin, who are fairly confident they will lose John Degenkolb to Trek-Segafredo this offseason, have swooped quickly to replace him and will sign Michael Matthews from Orica-GreenEDGE.

Matthews has two stages in both the Giro and Vuelta, as well as stints in the leaders jersey in both races. He has also placed third in both Amstel Gold and Milan-Sanremo, as well as second at the Worlds last year.

Degenkolb has nine Vuelta stages and one in the Giro. He also won the points jersey in the 2014 edition of the former. He was also the winner of the 2015 editions of Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix and has won Gent-Wevelgem in the past too.

Orica-GreenEDGE have Matthews, Gerrans, Ewan and the Yates twins out of contract, whilst Gaint-Alpecin have struggled to deal with the injuries they sustained in a training camp crash, coupled with the loss of Marcel Kittel to Etixx-QuickStep.