Michael O'Loughlin, the multiple U23 road race and TT national champion, is making the move to France for next year after the closure of Team Wiggins.
The 22-year-old from Carrick-on-Suir rode for Team Wiggins for all of his U23 career, joining the squad in its second season in 2016.
However, with the closure of the team at the end of the just-finished 2019 road campaign O'Loughlin was one of the riders left looking for a berth for next year.
And now he has found one with top DN1 French outfit Union Cycliste Nantes Atlantique.
This year O'Loughlin won the U23 TT at the national road race championships and was also 6th in the TT at the elite European Games in Minsk.
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In his junior days he took 8th place in the junior TT at the World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain.
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He was national junior road race champion the following year when he was also 2nd overall and a TT stage winner in the Trophée Centre Morbihan Nations Cup event.
As a first-year U23 rider in 2016 he was 15th in the TT at the European Championships and was 3rd in the elite national road race championships behind Nicolas Roche and Matt Brammeier; winning the U23 gold.
In 2017 he was 8th overall in Rás Tailteann and won the young rider classification, also taking 11th in the U23 TT at the Europeans as well as winning the Irish U23 TT and road crowns.
Last year he was TT champion again, placed 4th on a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir and was 2nd in the mountains classification in the Tour Alsace (2.2) in France.
This season he claimed the Irish U23 title for the third year in succession and was 14th in the Europeans.
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