Team BikeExchange has signed former under-23 Swiss time trial champion Alexandre Balmer to a two-year contract through the end of 2023, moving the 21-year-old mountain biker up to the World Tour level.

"I've always watched the Tour de Romandie pass by my house and I know that my national coach, Michael Albasini, used to win stages of this race on a regular basis. Ballmer, a former GreenEdge rider, works with Albasini at the Swiss Cycling Federation. He said, "Team Bike Exchange was part of the integration of a mountain biker (Nino Schluter) into the road cycling team a few years ago, and coming from a mountain biking background I am proud to be able to do the same.

"My first goal is to continue my development and reach the highest level in the world on the road as soon as possible. The team will support me not only in road cycling, but also in the mountain bike Olympic project. [Balmer joined Team BikeExchange after two seasons with Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ. He won gold medals at the 2018 Junior Cross Country MTB World Championships and the European MTB Championships.

He also won a silver medal in the junior road race at the European Championships and finished fourth in the junior men's road race at the 2018 World Championships behind winner Remco Evenpoel.

"With Alexandre, we believe we have signed a very talented rider for the future," Brent Copeland, general manager of Team BikeExchange, said in a statement.

"He will be the youngest rider on our men's roster and will spend his first year learning how to work with GreenEDGE Cycling and what the World Tour level is all about. Time is his advantage and we will make sure he has everything he needs to improve race by race."[11