Having raced in Rabobank/Blanco/Belkin colours until now, Bauke Mollema has decided to jump ships for the 2015 season. Trek gave confirmed the much rumoured signing of the Dutchman who will bolster the team in stage races and hilly classics.

Trek Factory Racing is pleased to announce the addition of 27-year-old Dutch rider Bauke Mollema to its team for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Mollema, the number 10 overall at the Tour de France, will strengthen the stage racing contingent of the team and bring new fire-power to the GC goals of the pinstriped squad. He will be the third Dutch rider on the team.

“I am very happy with this opportunity with Trek Factory Racing,” says Mollema. “The team has a great reputation in the peloton and I have had really good talks with Luca Guercilena. I can really feel the trust they have in me. The structure of the team is really solid and I like the vision of the management. The bike was also a major factor for me and the standards are obviously really high for a team that is owned by the bike supplier.”

“Bauke has shown a very consistent development as a GC rider, both in one week races like the Tour de Suisse and Grand Tours," said Trek Factory Racing's General Manager Luca Guercilena. "He is also a high potential rider for the hilly classics, as he has shown last weekend by taking second place in the Clásica San Sebastián. We believe in him and we want to help him to bolster his talent.”

“I feel like this team will give me the space to grow as a rider,” says Mollema. “A new environment and new faces will be good for me, I believe.”

Mollema has three Grand Tour top-ten results to his name: fourth in the 2011 Vuelta Espana and sixth and tenth in the last two Tours de France. He also had two podium finishes in the Tour de Suisse and one in the Tour of the Basque Country.