Hagens Berman Axiom has announced the addition of Pedro Andrade, a 19-year-old from Portugal.

The addition expands Portugal's connection with the U.S.-registered continental team, which he started with Ruben Guerreiro in 2015, and will join Trek Segafredo, Katusha Alpecin, and EF Education First next year for He will ride at the World Tour level.

Andrade, who turns 20 in May, rode for Portuguese Continental team Vito-Feirense-Pnb in 2019. He was Portugal's junior national road race champion in 2018.

Since then, Andrade won the fourth stage of the 2019 GP Abimota. He was third overall at the Volta a São Miguel and also third at the Volta as Terras Santa María. In Getxo, Spain, Andrade finished in the top 20 in the UCI 1.1 Circuit de Getxo.

Andrade is good on both short and long climbs, but can also handle short group sprints Andrade has moved to Axel Merckx's development team for 2020, where he will focus on improving his time trial and technical skills.

"Joining Hagens Berman Axion is a dream come true. I am very eager to start competing and helping the team."

Andrade is the fourth rider to join the 2020 Hagens Berman Axiom roster, joining Jens Reinders, Jarrad Drizners, and Michael Garrison.

The Merckx team will replace as many as 11 riders from its 16-member 2019 roster as riders age or are promoted.

Five riders have already signed with new teams for next year, including U23 time trial world champion Mikkel Bjarg (UAE Team Emirates), Ian Garrison and Joan Almeida to Deceuninck-QuickStep. Karel Vacek will move to Team Kolpak and Michael Zailardo will move to SEG Racing.

Riders retiring from the program include Zeke Mostov, Michael Rice, Davis Cole, Thomas Levard, Edward Anderson, and 2018 US Pro champion Johnny Brown.