Christopher Halvorsen is one of a number of riders bidding farewell to their current teams at this week's Tour of Guangxi. The 23-year-old will leave Team Ineos at the end of this year and move to EF Education First in the UK, where he has been for two years.

Halvorsen, the 2016 U23 road race world champion, joined Sky (the team's name at the time) at the start of 2018 and has won two races since. His stage wins at the Herald Sun Tour and Tour of Norway stand out as the young Norwegian continues to learn the ropes of WorldTour know-how.

"It's been a pretty good season, with some wins," he told Cycling News at the start of the second stage of the Tour of Guangxi in the North Sea.

"But a lot of times we almost won. That's something we'll have to work on in the future."

Three runner-up finishes at the Breden Coxsayde Classic behind Pascal Ackermann, plus five top-five finishes, show Halvorsen's consistency in sprinting, but there is also a sense that he still needs to progress to reach the next level.

"It's a great opportunity," Halvorsen says of his move to EF. 'I've been working on a plan for my development going forward. Definitely a big focus will be my development and improvement in sprinting."

EF Education First is not a sprint-oriented team, but it has struggled with a consistent fastman who brings results throughout the season since the heyday of Tyler Farrar, who won four stages in the 2010 Grand Tour.

Second stage winners Dan McRae, Sacha Modolo (both out after the season), and Wouter Wippert (out in 2018) have been the team's sprinting hope in recent years, but in six combined seasons with the team, the trio has brought home just six wins.

Team CEO Jonathan Vaughters said it is up to the team to develop Halvorsen's talent.

There are even bigger dreams: "Halvorsen is our ticket to the last one on the hearth," he said, hoping the Norwegian will bring the team the last monumental victory (Milan-San Remo) to complete the set.

Gabriel Rasch (currently with Ineos and Halvorsen's Directeur Sportif) sees Halvorsen's chances of success in the Italian race.

"He has great talent," Rasch said. I think he's grown a lot as a rider this year. He's still a little bit short of being on par with the top riders, but Milan-San Remo will be the race for him in the future."

"In general, we in the DS group wanted him to stay, but he had a lot of offers and wanted to sort out his future as soon as possible.

Of course, EF was his offer of choice, and despite talk of a future Sanremo challenge, he himself remained tight-lipped about his focus for the upcoming season. He said he had "no concrete goals yet," adding that he was focused on supporting Chris Lawless and Ben Swift in their final race at Ineos.

"It's my first professional team and I've had a great time here. I'm grateful to them for giving me my first chance as a professional."