Two-time Amstel Gold Race winner Enrico Gasparotto (Dimension Data) has changed his nationality from Italy to Switzerland.

The 37-year-old Gasparotto was born in Sacire in the eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, but lived for several years in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. In order to obtain Swiss citizenship, one must have lived in the Canton for 12 years, and Gasparotto has fulfilled this requirement.

The move will allow Gasparotto to represent Switzerland at the European Championships, World Championships, and Tokyo Olympics next season.

Somewhat surprisingly for a five-time Ardennes Classic podium finisher, Gasparotto has never represented Italy at a World Championships or Olympic Games, despite winning the national championship road race and wearing the Tricolore jersey in 2005, his first year as a professional. He has never competed for Italy at a World Championships or the Olympics.

Having re-signed with his current team (renamed NTT from 2020), Gasparotto has a chance to represent Switzerland at the "home" World Championships in Aigle Martigny next season.

He is not the first rider in the pro peloton to switch nationalities: 1994 Paris-Roubaix winner Andrei Timir, who represented the Soviet Union, went on to a 13-year career, changing nationalities from Moldova to Ukraine to Belgium.

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome changed nationalities from Kenya to England in 2007, as did Jan Svorada (Slovakia to Czech Republic), Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia to Uzbekistan), and Heinrich Haussler (Germany to Australia), László Bodrogi (Hungary to France), Steffen Wesemann (Germany to Switzerland), and Sergey Lagutin (Uzbekistan to Russia).

World champion Mads Pedersen returns to the Tour Down Under after a one-year absence and will begin his 2020 campaign in Australia.

The Dane, who started the 2017 and 2018 seasons at the race, will be joined by Trek-Segafredo teammate Richie Porte. Richie Porte won the Tour Down Under in 2017 and has won Willunga Hill, a race that has been won every year since 2013.

Pedersen made his debut in the rainbow stripes at the Tour de Euro-Metropole in October and finished the 2019 season after riding Tre Valli Varesine and Milan-Torino.

Next year, he will compete in the spring classics as team leader after John Degenkolb's departure from Trek, but said he will not put pressure on himself to win next year, adding that he has nothing to prove and wants to enjoy a year in the rainbow stripes.

Former professional rider Mauro Sant'Ambrosio was banned from racing for three months for participating in a fixed-gear criterium after declaring that he had never been sanctioned for doping, a requirement to obtain a race license in Italy.

The Italian, who had a professional career with LPR, Lampre, BMC, and Vini Fantini, competed in the Ulbe Criterium race in Ostia in June, which also served as the Italian fixed-gear championship.

In addition to a nondisclosure of his doping history, Sant'Ambrosio was sanctioned for not obtaining a master license, La Gazzetta dello Sport reported.

This is not the first time the 35-year-old has been banned; during his time with BMC, he was twice suspended from racing by the team in connection with the Mantova doping investigation, and in the 2013 Giro d'Italia, he finished ninth and won a stage as part of Vini Fantini He tested positive for EPO and was suspended for two years.

At the end of 2014, just before returning to racing, he tested positive for testosterone and was banned for three years. Sant'Ambrosio was scheduled to race from Amore e Vita in 2015 and protested his use of drugs as fertility treatment, but was banned regardless and has not attempted a professional return since his ban expired in 2017.

World Hour Record holder Victor Kampenaerts will once again start the year in Africa, heading to the highlands of Namibia where he trained for two months before attempting the Hour Record in early 2019.

This year, the 28-year-old broke Bradley Wiggins' record by 563 meters in April, a move that clearly served the Belgian well. Campenaerts won the Tirreno-Adriatico time trial and was second in the Giro d'Italia time trial.

Campenaerts, who will move from Lotto Soudal to NTT Pro Cycling next year, has his sights set on the Olympic time trial next year. However, he faces a battle with Wout Aalto, who has only one slot, along with Lemko Evenpoel, for a place in Belgium's squad for the Tokyo Olympics.