Harry Tanfield (open in new tab), who described his debut season on the World Tour with Katusha Alpecin (open in new tab) as "nothing worse than this," has a second chance by joining AG2R La Mondiale (open in new tab) for the 2020 campaign. opportunity.

But the British rider was not looking for a second chance in the first place. This time last year, the time triallist and ruler had signed a two-year neo-pro contract with Katusha-Alpecin, but last month the acquisition by the Israel Cycling Academy was announced, leaving him "high and dry."

For months, the future of Igor Makarov's team was up in the air, but Israel saw the World Tour license as a ticket to the sport's top tier and completed the acquisition in early October.

The team had already signed several players, including Dan Martin, so space on the 2020 roster was limited and the new management had to decide what to do with the 11 Katusha riders under contract for 2020. According to Tanfield, four of them decided to move on, but about half were told there was no place for them.

"I got a letter in July saying the team would probably have to quit. All the riders under contract are safe. No matter what happens, the license will be kept in some form," Tanfield told Cycling News at a reception for AG2R La Mondiale in the French Alps. [And then in late September, "Oh, okay. So it was like, "Oh, thank you for letting me know when October came around, that was great."]

Tanfield said the news was "what I needed most," as he had recently lost his mother. I did not receive that news directly.

"It wasn't official or direct from the team. They didn't give me any reason, they just said, 'Here's the list of players we want and here's the list of players we don't want.' That was it. There were no questions, no reasons,' " he said.

"I was basically left hanging out to dry. They probably paid us our salaries, but I didn't care about the money. But basically, the fact is that I've been on a string. I thought I was going to be safe next year, and then it happened."

Tanfield's agent, Philippe Rambaud, immediately picked up the phone and began calling team managers. The first was Vincent Lavenu of AG2R La Mondiale. This was a very difficult decision, as Tanfield had almost signed with this French team last year before deciding to stay with Katusha's Canyon Bikes.

While it is not uncommon in these situations for the transferring team to pay a rider's salary, even if it is a new team, Lavenu admitted to Cycling News that AG2R will pay Tanfield's salary from January onward. This means that Israel/Katusha is paying him about €5,000 as a salary equal to his original contract.

Once AG2R received official confirmation from Katusha that Tanfield had been released from his contract, the deal was done and a new contract was exchanged by mail before Tanfield's 2020 French World Tour team lineup was announced last week.

"It actually worked out well. They were proactive in encouraging me to look for a team and I appreciated that.

"I found a team, got the year's salary I signed up for, and AG2R got a rider for less money.

Tanfield was full of enthusiasm as he began brushing up on his GCSE French and getting to know his new teammates after an 11km hike in the Alps. After a shocking introduction to the World Tour, he is eager to get going, with a point to prove.

He said: "I couldn't have had a worse start to the year. I just got kicked around."

Tanfield did not complete the race until Nokele Koase in late March, but that was in the spring classic campaign. Tanfield, who competed in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Coure Brussel Kuhne, Ghent-Wevelgem, and Doire de Hländeren, described it as a "baptism of fire."

"I was basically a shell in the Classics," he said. 'I could hardly do anything. I felt like I couldn't do my job, that I couldn't do anything. Even though the race had just started, by the time two and a half hours had gone by, I was out of it."

"It doesn't matter how much gas you use, the fact is, racing is aerobic, so you have to have a high watt per kilometer to survive, and you have to be efficient. When you run track in the winter, you don't know that. It took me a long time to get over that. At least until August, I was far from the 2018 level in terms of power."

But at the end of the season, Tanfield showed glimpses of the rider who won a stage with Canyon-Eisberg at the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire. He finished fifth in the short time trial at the Bink Bank Tour, had a solid Tour of Britain, and won a bronze medal in the team time trial mixed relay at the World Championships.

At AG2R, he will continue to hone his time trial skills on his new bike and equipment while integrating into the Classics team.

"What I did in the race at the end of last year, I need to do throughout the year. I need to be more solid," he said.

"My role will be similar to last year. We have a good group of guys like Oliver, Lawrence (Naessen), Stein (van den Berg), and Sylvain (Dillier). I want to learn from them and not just stay in a pure shell

"We haven't talked about the other races yet, but I just want to start the year off right. I want to come on strong in the first half of the year, push up and hopefully win a contract extension."

The Katusha-Alpecin episode has thankfully drawn a line in the sand, if not turned back the clock.

"I'm really grateful to Vincent for giving me another chance. If only I had been given this chance before ......" Tanfield said.