Marc Hirschi, one of the rising stars of road cycling, has agreed to terminate his contract with DSM, the team announced on Tuesday.

Last season, the 22-year-old Swiss rider won the Fleche Wallonne classic, won the longest stage of the Tour de France after a solo breakaway and was third in the World Championship road race. His contract was due to run until the end of 2021.

"Team DSM has reached a settlement agreement with their rider Marc Hirschi to terminate their present employment," said the team, known as Sunweb last season. The brief statement added that part of the agreement was "that no further comments will be made".

"Thanks for everything, Marc!" the team tweeted.

Neither the team nor Hirschi has indicated where he will ride next season.

He is not the first big-name rider to be allowed to quit the team before his contract expired. In August 2019, Tom Dumoulin, the 2017 Giro d'Italia winner, left Sunweb. He then signed for Jumbo-Visma, who finished 2020 as the top team in the UCI rankings.