Three-time world champion Oscar Freire has signed with Russian team Katusha for next season, ending the Spanish cyclist's nine-year run with Team Rabobank after he was left out of the team's roster for this year's Tour de France.

The 35-year-old Katusha made the announcement Thursday, with Russia's Global Cycling Project chief Igor Makarov calling Freire "one of the most impressive riders of the last decades."

Freire has 73 victories in his career, including three wins in the Milan-San Remo classic, although his only victories this year were two stages in the Vuelta Andalucia.