Cycling: Attila Valter has transferred to Jumbo-Visma – official

Last week, Groupama FDJ pro cycling team member Attila Valter posted on his official Facebook page in which he talked about the races of the last few weeks and how he has been enjoying the last period. He concluded the post by saying that he would have "exciting news" in the last week of August.

This clearly implied that he would be sharing information about his future after his contract with the French team expires at the end of the season.

On Monday morning, Valter, who led the Giro d'Italia for three days last year, made another post on his social media page. He announced the sensational news that he will continue his career with the Dutch Jumbo-Visma team for three seasons from next year.

Three-time world champion Peter Sagan's official website first reported about a month and a half ago that Valter might continue his career with the Dutch star team. At the time, Valter said that he was not ruling out the possibility of continuing with Groupama-FDJ. It has now been revealed that he will leave the French team at the end of the year.

“I think this environment is the best for me to develop further. Team Jumbo-Visma is a top team that guides its riders very well to a higher level. Due to the conversations I had with the team management, my confidence was boosted a lot. I'm hoping I can fulfill my potential in the coming years,” the Hungarian rider was quoted as saying on Jumbo-Visma's website.

The team's sporting director, Merijn Zeeman, also spoke on the team's website, saying that they have been watching the Hungarian cyclist for years.

“Both in races and tests we have seen that he has great abilities. We look forward to working with him and helping him reach his potential,” said Zeeman on the team's website.

The Hungarian cyclist was a cyclist for Cube-Csömör and Pannon Cycling Team before signing with CCC in 2019, where he was part of the Continental and then World Tour teams for two years. He spent last year and this year with Groupama-FDJ. Valter's first major success came in 2019 when he became a Hungarian time trial champion, and in 2020, he skyrocketed at the Tour de Hongrie. He won the overall, the mountain jersey and even led the best Hungarian competition. The biggest success of his career so far came in 2021, when he became the first Hungarian to wear the distinctive jersey on stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia: he won the white jersey for the best young rider and after the sixth stage he was also the leader of the overall. Valter won this year's national championship road race, finished 4th in the one-day-long Strade Bianche and 5th overall in the Tour of the Alps, while he came close to winning a stage in this year's Giro, finishing fourth on stage 19.

In addition to Valter, Jumbo has also announced the signing of Slovenian time trial champion Jan Tratnik and 20-year-old British mountain rider Thomas Gloag, who have been signed until the end of 2024 and 2025, respectively.

Jumbo-Visma is perhaps the strongest World Tour team of its day, with aces such as this year's Tour de France final winner Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark and three-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic of Slovenia, three-time World Championship silver medalist (two time trials, one road race), Belgian cyclo-cross racer Wout van Aert, and two-time time trial world champion Rohan Dennis of Australia.

The Dutch team has been in the field under this name since 2019. Since then, the team has had three Vuelta and one Tour de France victories. Previously, under the name of Rabobank, there is one Giro d'Italia and one Vuelta victory under its belt.

Translated by Vanda Orosz.