Team Giant-Alpecin has announced the signing of Laurens ten Dam for 2016 season. The Dutch rider will provide support for leaders Warren Barguil and Tom Dumoulin. According to Cyclingnews, he will compete on both sides of the Atlantic next year.

The former Tour de France top-10 finisher will have a race programme in the US with major European events mixed in. "There were quite a few pluses from my point of view as to why I've gone there," he explained. "Sometimes when you're looking for the ideal scenario it takes a little bit longer and this has turned out to be ideal for me and the team. It's all come together in the end."

This summer, he was hit by a car during his training. After that, he reassessed his ambitions in both his life and his profession. "Things changed quite a bit for me after this year's Tour de France. Ten days after the race a car drove into the back of me. That changed my perspective on a few things and I realised that I could have died or been paralysed for the rest of my life," he said.

LottoNL-Jumbo decided not to extend his contract. So, he told his agent that he would like to realize his dream of being based in the US with an international programme. "My dream was always to live or spend time in the US for a period of my life so I told my agent to see if there were opportunities out there for me. "Giant came and they have given me that chance. At first I was looking at only doing domestic racing in the US but I still want to do a good Tour de France as I've still got something left in my legs. In the end we could combine something that's perfect, with a US programme and races in Europe."

After the departure of Marcel Kittel to Etixx-Quick Step, he added that Giant-Alpecin will be more focused on stage races with the emergence of Dumoulin and Barguil. "Marcel Kittel leaves the team and now they're going to focus a bit more on GC with guys like Dumoulin and Barguil. I think they wanted an experienced climber this year, and they didn't need that role in the past maybe, but I think that I can help them build a train in the mountains like they have in the sprints. I'm almost 35 so I don't know how long I can hang onto these."