Although they have finalized their team for 2017, LottoNL-Jumbo are already looking for reinforcements for 2018. A rider that has attracted a lot of interest is 20-year-old Kristoffer Halvorsen who recently became U23 world champion.

The Dutch team already wanted to sign Halvorsen for 2017. Since July, the team has had an eye on him, according to Wielerflits. The Norwegian was on the shortlist with four other riders that LottoNL-Jumbo wanted to test and includes new signing Gijs Van Hoecke. However, Halvorsen indicated that he wanted to wait until after the Worlds because he still wants to ride as a U23 rider for another year. Despite his world title in Doha (Qatar), Halvorsen will stay with his team Joker Byggtorget.

When it became clear that the 20-year-old Norwegian could not be signed,  LottoNL-Jumbo immediately showed interest in one of his domestiques to improve the chances of signing Halvorsen for 2018 and beyond. The Dutch team signed Amund Grøndahl Jansen who is a friend of Halvorsen and his lead-out man at Joker Byggtorget. LottoNL-Jumbo hope that the Jansen’s presence will make it more attractive for Halvorsen to join the team.

It might be a difficult affai for the Dutch team. On Thursday it became known that Halvorsen will visit training camps of Sky and QuickStep in the coming months. Since the latter team still has not found a new sponsor for 2018, Sky seems to have the best chances. LottoNL-Jumbo also contemplated to bring Halvorsen to a training camp, but for now nothing is planned. "Sky is one of the best teams in the world. I'm open but I do not know what I'll do in 2018," Halvorsen tells Procycling.no.

Besides LottoNL-Jumbo, Sky and QuickStep, Sunweb and Orica-Bike Exchange are rumoured to be interested in the Norwegian.