The cross country mountain bike World Champion and three World Cup titles holder Nino Schurter will participate in Tour de Suisse and Tour de Romandie this season in the Orica-GreenEDGE outfit, as the Swiss rider is looking for a new challenges is his career as a professional cyclist.

Even though Schurter got the idea of trying his legs in the road racing some time ago, he was forced to wait for final approval from both the UCI and Swiss Cycling before making any further agreements.

The Swiss rider will ride under the banner of the Australian World Tour squad because of the mutual sponsor, Scott, of both Orica-GreenEDGE and his current team Scott Odlo.

Schurter claims that the agreement with Orica provides him with an opportunity to fulfill one of his biggest dreams, it is participating in the Tour de Suisse, however defending his world championship title would still remain his main goal of the 2014 season.

"To do the Tour de Suisse once in my life has always been my dream," said Schurter.

"My heart is in mountain biking and will remain there. But if I ever wanted to ride a big stage race on the road, the 2014 season offers the perfect slot for it.”

"To defend my world championship title is still going to be my main goal for 2014, and furthermore I will 100% concentrate on mountain biking to hopefully add a missing Olympic [gold] medal to my collection. I believe that on my way there, I can gain a lot of knowledge and experience from racing on the road with Orica-GreenEdge this year."

Scott-Odlo Team Manager Thomas Frischknecht confirmed Schurter’s drive to constantly search for new challenges and possible improvements, what creates a picture of an exceptionally ambitious sports character.

"Nino has always been looking for new ways to develop his skills. He is searching for improvements all the time - the opposite of a copy-paste athlete. That's him and that's why he is so good at what he is doing. I respect him for these characteristics and therefore support him with this idea. I'm pretty sure this experience will only make him stronger."

The Orice-GreenEDGE general manager Shayne Bannan also was pleased to welcome Swiss rider on board in the two important races of the UCI calendar.

"It's a really exciting project getting Nino on the road with us. He's an extremely accomplished athlete and we look forward to seeing how he will perform on a road team on home soil."

.

In order to race the Tour de Romandie, he will skip the second UCI Mountain Bike World Cup stop in Cairns, Australia. That World Cup round and the European Championships are the only big mountain bike races Schurter will miss for his road racing plans.