Niki Terpstra was perhaps the perfect prototype of a Quick-Step Floors rider, a man whose obvious ambition never quite teetered into selfishness. He was, as manager Patrick Lefevere put it this spring, an individualist who doubled as a team player. During his eight-year tenure at Quick-Step, Terpstra, winner of Paris-Roubaix in 2014 and the Tour of Flanders this season, was rarely shy of suitors willing to make him an outright leader on another team, but he had always preferred to stay put - until now. On Thursday, Direct Energie announced that they had secured Terpstraīs services for 2019 and 2020. Terpstraīs departure from Quick-Step was perhaps less surprising than his final destination, but, as he told De Telegraaf, the contract offered by the French Continental team was simply one he could not turn down.ADVERTISEMENT Although Quick-Stepīs future is guaranteed for 2019, Lefevereīs team is still searching for a title sponsor. The Belgian was unable to promise that could meet Terpstraīs salary expectations for next season, and he could understand the riderīs decision to take his talents to the Vendée. `Itīs life. When there is a budget, there is a budget. If we donīt have enough money in the budget then we canīt pay him, and itīs over,` Lefevere told Cyclingnews in Riemst on Saturday. When Terpstra signed for Quick-Step from Milram at the end of 2010, he reportedly forsook the chance of a higher salary elsewhere because his mind was set on joining Tom Boonenīs cohort on the most successful Classics team of the era. As a 26-year-old rider, it was a punt worth taking. Now in the latter phase of his career, Terpstraīs decision-making was, understandably, driven more obviously by economics.
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