(Reuters) – Two-times British road champion Peter Kennaugh will leave Team Sky at the end of the season after signing a two-year contract with German team Bora-Hansgrohe.
Isle of Man-born Kennaugh, who turned professional in Team Sky’s debut season in 2010, has had several successful years at the British team, and recently won a stage at the Criterium du Dauphine.
The 28-year-old, who also tasted Olympic success as part of Britain’s gold medal-winning pursuit team at the London Games in 2012, said he had to move because he needed fresh motivation.
“I wanted a change, some new motivation and a different experience. I felt that if I was honest with myself and didn’t leave Team Sky in order to explore other areas then I would have looked back at my career and regretted it,” he told cyclingnews.com.
“I had to do it. I’ve been with Team Sky since 2010 and over the last two contract negotiations I’d thought about it but never really seriously considered leaving but there were a couple of factors that decided it in the end.”
He joins current world champion Peter Sagan at Bora, and is looking forward to having to adapt to new tactics.
The focus at Team Sky is general classification (GC) and especially the Tour de France. Bora, on the other hand, switches between riding for Sagan in sprints and one-day races, and supporting Pole Rafal Majka in stage races.
“At Sky sometimes it’s more of a GC, conservative style of racing, and I’ve appreciated that but I’m going to team that has a different style,” Kennaugh added.
“I don’t think I was getting stale at Team Sky but a fresh way of doing things will just keep me fresh. Maybe part of me felt that I was getting too relaxed. It’s exciting times.”
(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by John O’Brien)
