British national time trial champion Alex Dowsett is leaving Team Sky after two seasons to join Spanish WorldTour outfit Movistar. The news was confirmed in a brief statement published on Movistar's website this morning.

The 24-year-old from Essex, who is haemophiliac, joined Team Sky in 2011 from the Trek-Livestrong under-23 squad, where he was a team mate of Taylor Phinney.

Despite winning back-to-back national time trial titles and finishing eighth in the discipline at this year's World Championships in the Netherlands, his career at Sky has not ignited in the way he would perhaps have wished.

His 2012 season was also disrupted when he suffered a broken elbow in March during the Three Days of De Panne, which meant he missed the Spring Classics campaign.

Earlier this month, Dowsett attracted criticism when he described Lance Armstrong to the BBC as a "legend" in the wake of USADA publishing its Reasoned Decision, subsequently clarifying his comments by saying "I do think what Lance has done is completely unacceptable."