Kasper Asgreen will join NSN Cycling Team from the 2027 season after agreeing a two-year contract through the end of 2028, adding another proven Classics winner to a squad that has increasingly built its identity around aggressive one-day racing.
The 31-year-old Dane will arrive with almost a decade of professional experience and one of the strongest Classics palmarès in the peloton. His biggest victory remains the 2021 Tour of Flanders, while he has also won E3 Saxo Classic, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and stages at both the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
The move continues NSN Cycling Team’s reshaping of its WorldTour roster. The team has already recruited riders such as Biniam Girmay as part of its longer-term project, with Asgreen now adding leadership, experience and another rider capable of winning from aggressive race situations. The deal is also the latest confirmed move in ProCyclingUK’s Men’s Cycling Transfers Hub.
Asgreen gives NSN another proven Classics leader
Asgreen’s arrival is primarily about strengthening NSN’s ambitions in the northern Classics.
His breakthrough came with second place at the 2019 Tour of Flanders, before he returned two years later to win the Monument and establish himself among the strongest cobbled Classics riders of his generation.
NSN general manager Kjell Carlström sees Asgreen as capable of contributing in several different roles rather than simply arriving as another protected leader.
“Kasper is exactly the versatile rider we wanted to add to our roster, and we expect him to make a strong impact as both a leader and a teammate.”
That versatility is a significant part of the signing. Asgreen can work in a breakaway, ride for long periods on the front, attack from distance or act as a road captain around younger riders, giving NSN considerably more tactical flexibility than a purely results-driven signing would provide.
The team already has a strong Classics core around riders such as Biniam Girmay, whose own move to the squad was one of its defining recruits ahead of 2026. ProCyclingUK covered Girmay’s three-year NSN deal through 2028, and Asgreen’s arrival gives the team another rider capable of shaping hard one-day races rather than waiting for a sprint.
Asgreen sees NSN as a natural fit
For Asgreen, the attraction was not simply receiving a protected role.
He said the team’s sporting vision and belief in what he could contribute were central to his decision, particularly the balance between his own ambitions and helping teammates win.
That fits naturally with the way he has raced throughout his career. Asgreen has collected major victories himself, but has also spent long periods working for team leaders and controlling races from the front.
That ability to switch between leader and domestique is part of what NSN are buying.
It should also make him useful in a team containing younger riders who can benefit from his experience of racing and winning the biggest cobbled events.
The Classics remain Asgreen’s biggest target
The Tour of Flanders remains central to Asgreen’s ambitions.
His second place in 2019 represented his major breakthrough, while victory in 2021 established him as a Monument winner. Even after his career expanded into Grand Tour stage hunting and time trialling, the Flemish Classics have remained the races most closely associated with him.
Asgreen believes NSN already has enough depth to become an important Classics team and sees his own experience as something that can help convert that potential into results.
That should create an interesting dynamic around Girmay and the rest of the squad.
Girmay provides an elite reduced sprint if the race comes back together. Asgreen is much more valuable if a race becomes tactical from distance. Riders such as Lewis Askey and Matis Louvel add further aggressive options.
NSN consequently do not need every major Classic to follow the same script.
That was already evident during the team’s first season under the NSN identity, with ProCyclingUK’s NSN Cycling Team launch analysis highlighting how the new structure was being built around a broader racing identity rather than one single leader.
Asgreen still wants the Vuelta stage needed for a Grand Tour trilogy
The move is not purely about spring racing.
Asgreen has already won stages at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, leaving the Vuelta a España as the missing piece in a potential Grand Tour stage-winning trilogy.
His Tour victory came in 2023 when a four-rider breakaway held off the sprinters on Stage 18, one of the most memorable breakaway wins of that edition. ProCyclingUK covered Asgreen’s Tour de France Stage 18 victory, a result that encapsulated his ability to survive in a move even when the peloton appeared certain to make the catch.
Adding a Vuelta stage is now one of the goals he wants to pursue with NSN.
That target fits his profile particularly well. The Vuelta regularly contains hilly transitional stages where a strong Classics rider can attack from a breakaway rather than compete directly with the GC favourites.
Asgreen has already proved he can convert those opportunities at the Tour and Giro. Completing the set would add another distinctive achievement to his palmarès.
A World Championship time trial medal remains unfinished business
Asgreen also retains ambitions against the clock.
He finished fourth in the 2021 World Championship individual time trial, missing the podium by only two seconds, and still sees a World Championship medal as something he wants to achieve before the end of his career.
That gives NSN another reason to value his signing beyond the Classics.
Asgreen’s time-trial strength has always underpinned his racing style. The same sustained power that allows him to attack from distance in a Classic makes him useful in team time trial situations, breakaways and long periods of peloton control.
He is unlikely to arrive at NSN as a rider focused narrowly on one block of the calendar.
Instead, the team can use him from the cobbled Classics through Grand Tours and major championships.
NSN continue to add experience around a younger core
Asgreen’s signing also fits the wider direction of NSN’s roster building.
The team has already committed to developing riders such as Jens Verbrugghe, who will step up to the senior WorldTour squad for 2027 and 2028. ProCyclingUK covered Verbrugghe’s two-year promotion to NSN Cycling Team, and pairing younger riders with someone of Asgreen’s experience gives the team a clearer leadership structure.
Carlström specifically highlighted that mentoring role when discussing the signing.
Asgreen has raced the biggest Classics, won a Monument, contested Grand Tours and ridden World Championships at the highest level. That experience has value even on days when he is not the protected rider.
For a team still establishing its identity under the NSN name, that sort of knowledge matters.
-
Photo Credit: Getty
What Kasper Asgreen brings to NSN Cycling Team
The most obvious answer is Classics credibility.
NSN now add a former Tour of Flanders winner to a group already containing one of the world’s best hilly sprinters in Girmay and several riders capable of racing aggressively before the finish.
Asgreen also gives them something different.
He does not need to wait for the final sprint.
He can attack with 50 kilometres remaining, work in a dangerous breakaway or force rival teams to chase while NSN’s faster riders remain protected behind.
That creates tactical combinations which should be particularly valuable in races such as Flanders, E3 Saxo Classic and other cobbled events where strength in numbers matters almost as much as having the single strongest rider.
His move also comes after two seasons with EF Education-EasyPost, having joined the American team for 2025. ProCyclingUK covered Asgreen’s move to EF Education-EasyPost when that deal was announced.
Two years later, he is moving again with a very different objective: becoming one of the experienced leaders of an NSN project still adding depth around its existing stars.
Asgreen gives NSN another route to victory
The signing is significant because it does not simply duplicate what NSN already have.
Girmay is at his best when hard racing still produces a sprint.
Asgreen is most dangerous when the sprint never happens.
That difference should allow the team to race much more aggressively in 2027 and 2028, particularly in the cobbled Classics where forcing rival teams to chase several threats can be decisive.
The Dane still has personal ambitions too. Another major Classic remains an obvious target, the Vuelta stage needed to complete his Grand Tour set is still missing, and a World Championship time trial medal remains unfinished business.
For NSN, that creates exactly the type of signing they have been looking for: a rider capable of winning major races himself while making the riders around him more dangerous at the same time.
