The Circus Wanty Gobert Tolmans team announced that it has signed 33-year-old Jan Bakelants as the last of its 26 riders for the season.

The Belgian, who wore the yellow jersey in the 2013 Tour de France, moves on after a year with Team Sunweb. He ended his four seasons with AG2R La Mondiale with a terrible crash on the 2017 Il Lombardia, where he went over a barrier into a ravine on the Solmano descent and suffered four vertebral fractures and seven rib fractures. He said the crash left him one centimeter shorter.

He will join the 2020 team along with Simone Petilli, who was on the precipice in the same crash. Petilli will move from UAE Team Emirates and Danny van Poppel from Jumbo Visma. Two roompot riders, Maurits Lammertink and Boy van Poppel, and cyclocross racers Quinten Hermans and Kone van Kessel and Australian Alexander Evans, all but six of the 2019 roster New additions to the retained team.

Star rider Guillaume Martin has gone to Cofidis, while Marco Minard and Bart de Clerc retired. Frédéric Bacquer moved to B&B Hotels-Vital Concept, Jérôme Beaugne to Canyon-dhb, and Boris Barré to Wallonie Bruxelles.

Team manager Hilaire van der Schullen was pleased to sign Baquelinz as a mentor for the team's young riders, who are pursuing big ambitions for the 2020 season.

"In our discussions since October, we noticed his great motivation. We strongly believe in his added value. He will teach the young neo-pros the know-how of the propeloton and assist the older riders in the classics and hopefully in the Tour de France," van der Schullen said.

The Belgian team will be the top-ranked Pro Continental team at the end of the 2019 season and is aiming for wildcard invitations to many of the major World Tour races in 2020, including the Tour de France.

Bakelants is looking forward to the opportunity to race in the aggressive style that suits him best, and says the team was a perfect fit. He says, "I want to be the kind of rider I am in an environment that favors an aggressive style of riding.

"The exciting race calendar, including the WorldTour program of this Belgian ProTeam, is very attractive. I look forward to sharing my experience with my new teammates and competing in the Tour of Catalunya and the Ardennes Classics. I am motivated to be part of the team's success."

Jeremy Bellicoe Alfdan Decker Aimé de Ghent Jasper de Plas Ludwig de Winter Thomas Degand Tom Devlint Fabien Dubay Timothy Dupont Odd Christian Eyking Alex Evans Quinten Hellmans Wesley Kreder Maurits Lammertink Xandro Moulis Yoan Offredo Andrea Pasqualone Simone Petilli Kone van Kessel Kevin Van Melsen Boy Van Poppel Danny van Poppel Pieter Van Speybroeck Loic Vliegen [19].