Lotto-Belisol has decided to reinforce its squad for next season by the acquisition of the highly talented classics rider Tony Gallopin who recently won the Clasica San Sebastian ahead of Alejandro Valverde and Roman Kreuziger. The Frenchman has been signed to make the talent pool a bit deeper in the Belgian squad whose results have often been based on the performances of a few high-quality captains.

Having already announced contract extensions with many of its core riders, Lotto-Belisol has now also signed a new rider to significantly bolster its squad. Radioshack's Tony Gallopin has long been regarded as one of the most exciting talents for the classics and he will use his talents to the benefit of the Belgian team during the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

Gallopin started his career as part of the Cofidis team but has been with Radioshack for the past two seasons. He is a hugely talented and versatile athlete who can sprint, time trial and climb and whose main strength lie in the classics. He has been a valuable support rider for Fabian Cancellara in the cobbled classics and proved his own abilities in the hillier races when he won the Clasica San Sebastian a little more than a week ago.

“My choice of Lotto Belisol is inspired by many things," he said. "I’ll be in a team with tradition, that has leaders who have already proved themselves, in the sprints, in the classics as well as in the Grand Tours and where I will be able to take my own chance in the races that suit me well."

With his many talents, Gallopin has the potential to shine in many different types of races.

"The entire period from Paris-Nice until Liège-Bastogne-Liège is marked in my agenda," he said. "My favourite race? The Tour of Flanders! I see myself as a polyvalent rider who can perform in different types of races."

Despite his new contract, Gallopin has no intentions of slowing down in the final part of the season and aims to do his utmost for the Radioshack team during the final few months.

"The next weeks I’ll be active in among other the USA Pro Challenge, GP Plouay and the WorldTour races in Canada and of course I’ll keep on performing 100% for my current employer Radioshack," he said.

Lotto-Belisol has been hugely dependent on its four captains Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Andre Greipel, Jelle Vanendert and Jurgen Roelandts and manager Marc Sergeant explains that the acquisition of Gallopin is an attempt to increase the depth of the roster.

“The past year and a half the team has tried to get maximal output from the potential that was present," he said. "That succeeded to a great extent, like in the Ardennes spring of 2012 with Vanendert, in last year’s Tour with Greipel and Van den Broeck and with Jürgen Roelandts as leader in the classics. But when one of our leaders wasn’t able to perform on his best level, like Roelandts after he broke his cervical vertebra in 2012, Vanendert past spring or Van den Broeck after his crash in the Tour, we performed less."

"With Tony Gallopin we reinforce our core considerably. He’s only 25, the past years he has shown impressive talent and doubtlessly there is still room for progression. Tony is a rider who can be put into action on many terrains. Of course there are the French races like Paris-Nice, but also in the classics he can play an important role for Lotto-Belisol. That, because of his sports performances, he can give our sponsor Belisol a surplus value with our southern neighbours, is of course important as well.”

Co-sponsor Belisol has long wished to see a French rider on the roster and is happy with the new signing.

“We have never made a secret of the fact that the presence of a French rider in the Lotto-Belisol core is an important asset to us," general director Nicolas Thiel said. "That, with Tony Gallopin, it is a rider with qualities and potential, definitely pleases us. One of the reasons why Belisol has engaged itself in cycling is the profiling in France. We will be on the first row to support Tony Gallopin and all other riders, like we have always done in the past.”

Gallopin is the first new signing for Lotto-Belisol ahead of the coming season.