Caleb Yuan has welcomed the signing of Philippe Gilbert at Lotto Soudal, and the Australian sprinter believes the new partnership will help him win Milano-Sanremo in the future.

Gilbert and Ewan, who signed a two-year contract extension in front of the media at the Lot Soudal team camp on Wednesday, will head into 2020 looking for their first win in Milano-Sanremo.

Ewan is second in the Italian Classic, while Gilbert has won every monument except La Classissima.

"If the race goes the way Phil is going to win, I'm not going to be there because it will be too difficult for me," Ewan told the media at the Lotto Soudal camp in Mallorca, Spain.

"But if the race is easy and I'm there, Phil's not going to win; it's great to have two options going into the race."

Ewan follows a typical race program for the first half of 2020. He will skip the Bay Critz and the Australian Championships and compete in the Tour Down Under in January. Milan-San Remo is his first major goal before focusing on the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.

He could compete in the Belgian one-day race in the spring, but with Gilbert and John Degenkolb moving to Lotto Soudal, the demand for Australians in the cobbled classic races will be relatively low.

"It's the biggest classic of the year. It's the only monument a pure sprinter can win, so if there's one monument you want to target in a year, it's the only one. That's why it's so special."

Ewan also believes that the addition of Gilbert will take some of the pressure off of him to achieve his big goal.

"We both live in Monaco, so we knew him before he came to the team. It's nice to have such an experienced player on the team."

"With Phil on the team, we can learn a lot from him.

Lot Soudal announced at a press conference on Wednesday that Euan will extend his contract with the team for another two years beyond 2020. He signed the new contract in front of the assembled journalists and Lot Soudal management, explaining the reasons for the re-signing.

"When you sign a contract with a team, you don't know what the first few years will be like.

"In the first few months I knew right away that I was happy and that I fit in with the team. At the beginning of the year there were times when things didn't go well, but then the team backed me up. After that, I started to get better and wanted to stay with the team. Their ambition is in line with mine."

Ewan's lead outriders, Jasper de Baist and Roger Kluge, also signed two-year contract extensions.