Deceuninck-QuickStep has announced the signing of Mauri Vansevenant, winner of this year's Giro della Valle d'Aosta and son of former professional player Wim Vansevenant.

The 20-year-old Belgian player joins the team in July 2020 and has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract. The contract will begin after Vansevenant completes his studies at Howest University in Bruges.

Vansevenin won the Giro della Valle d'Aosta, one of the most promising stages on the U23 calendar, by 4:30 minutes, and finished sixth in the Tour de Lavenir this month. Previous winners include Thibaut Pinot, Fabio Aru, and Pavel Sivakov.

"It's great to sign with Deceuninck-QuickStep. It's a big team and I'm looking forward to progressing with them, learning their ways, and hopefully having a beautiful future ahead of me." I talked to a few teams, but I think I made the right choice and my mind was made up."

Named after the 1991 Vuelta a España winner, Merciol Mauri, Vansevenin had success in Italy before finishing earlier that year at the Course de la Pe He finished in fifth place. His father, Wim, was a professional from 1995 to 2008 and ran for Quick Step's rival team, Lotto, for part of his career.

"I come from a cycling family and my father was a professional rider for 14 years. I'm very proud to have won the Giro della Valle d'Aosta, especially on a very hard course, and to be able to compete with the best riders of my generation." [It was the same at the Tour de Lavenir, where he spent a day in the yellow jersey and held on to sixth place in the overall GC after 10 days of hard racing.

Team CEO Patrick Lefebvre added that signing Vansevenin was "great" for the team, which focuses on developing young talent.

"We put a big emphasis on developing young talent and he is one of our best players. Mauri's performance this season speaks for itself, and we knew there would be competition for him."

Van Sevenan is the seventh player signed for 2020, joining Mattia Cattaneo, Davide Ballerini, Bert van Lerberghe, Stein Stels, and Joan Almeida. Andrea Bagioli also joins as a neo-pro, while Philippe Gilbert, Elia Viviani, and Enric Mas leave the team.