Teams & Riders Polti-Kometa

[LaFlorecita]

Unfortunately, Miky fractured his collarbone in the stage 2 crash and he had surgery yesterday. Wishing him a quick recovery.

 

[Guszek]

@LaFlorecita, do you know the race calendar of Kometa for March? There is no info on PCS regarding this month. Will they take part in any competition?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

@LaFlorecita, do you know the race calendar of Kometa for March? There is no info on PCS regarding this month. Will they take part in any competition?

I saw yesterday that they will race in Croatia this week: Trofej Umag, Trofej Porej and Istrian Spring Trophy. Looks like they won't be in Tour de Normandie despite winning 2 stages last year.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Article in Gazzetta today regarding the creation of a new Italian WT team. Interestingly enough the man behind the project is also an advisor for the Kometa cycling team, and several people involved in the Kometa project shared the article on social media. Amongst them Basso, who included the hashtags "future" and "ambitions", and Contador.

Considering the news we saw earlier this year about their dreams of moving up to ProConti or WT next year, and also the talk about switching from a Spanish license to another country if they can't find a big Spanish sponsor, this makes me wonder...

 

[Guszek]

Quite good results for the team in Istria. But still no win this season.
Do we have any info about next races? It looks like they will take part in Tour of Croatia, but I think there should be any other race before.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Especially Oldani showed some very promising results. 3 top-10's in 3 road stages and a top-10 on GC, only in the prologue he finished a little further back. I haven't seen any info about their next races. We'll have to wait,.

 

[joorges]

The team will have a little rest until GP Indurain and, then, they will take part in April and May Spanish races (GP Indurain, Klasika Amorebieta, Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, Vuelta a Asturias, Vuelta a Madrid and Vuelta a Aragon, all of races with TV except Amorebieta), later they'll take part in Tour de l'Ain and, finally, Tour of Hongrie in June (sponsor race). In July, they will take part in Sibiu Tour, Giro Valle d'Aosta, Klasika de Villafranca de Ordizia and Circuito de Getxo and they ended with Vuelta a Burgos (in August) and Coppa Sabatini and Coppa Bernocchi in Italy (September).

No Tour of Croatia because Trek-Segafredo will take part.
Some riders will take part in races with National Teams, like Oldani (Coppi e Bartali) or Ries (in Nations Cup like Gent-Wevelgem U23, etc.)

 

[Ruudz0r]

The junior team is completely dominating in Spain, but they basically have all the good riders so its a little boring. Only Ayuso is with Bathco, guess he is the only one who can beat them every now and then, but not easy riding a super strong team.

Looking forward to Carlos Rodriguez in the international races though

 

[LaFlorecita]

Michele Gazzoli and Stefano Oldani will race Coppi e Bartali with the Italian national team. This is Gazzoli's first race since he fractured his collarbone in Antalya.

The junior team will have 3 riders race the junior Gent-Wevelgem race for the Spanish national team, Carlos Rodriguez, Raul Garcia and Fernando Tercero. Keep an eye on Rodriguez as he finished 13th already last year.

 

[joorges]

Next race, Giro di Sicilia via Instagram (@jesushernandezblazquez)

 

[janraaskalt]

Re:

Michele Gazzoli and Stefano Oldani will race Coppi e Bartali with the Italian national team. This is Gazzoli's first race since he fractured his collarbone in Antalya.

However: DNS Gazzoli

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Michele Gazzoli and Stefano Oldani will race Coppi e Bartali with the Italian national team. This is Gazzoli's first race since he fractured his collarbone in Antalya.

However: DNS Gazzoli

On instagram he posted that this was due to a "bureaucratic issue", so not as a result of his injury. So at least he's fully recovered.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Our team for the Giro di Sicilia. A nice test for the boys with an option to score a promising result. Eyes on Oldani and Lopez.

 

[JoeD1997]

I found an interview in English with Juan Pedro Lopez here: https://t.co/LRbOVxFRHq. Interesting he says his dream pro win is his home race, Vuelta a Andalucia, as opposed to any WT race, one-day event or GT.

 

[Red Rick]

I imagine this should be the mandatory viewing for the team ahead of Sicily

https://youtu.be/OAOk_F96KyA?t=25

 

[Guszek]

9th place for Michel Ries in Sicilia. Quite strong performance.
I expected a bit more from Juanpe Lopez, but Etna turned out to be too long for him.
Generally - quite good performance by the team.
Next race: Castilla y Leon

 

[joorges]

Very good race for the team on Giro di Sicilia, every day showed and ninth place for Ries in GC.
This weekend, Ries will take part in Ronde van Vlaanderen Beloften on Saturday (with Luxembourg) and the team will take part in Klasika Amorebieta (on Sunday).

 

[LaFlorecita]

9th place for Michel Ries in Sicilia. Quite strong performance.
I expected a bit more from Juanpe Lopez, but Etna turned out to be too long for him.
Generally - quite good performance by the team.
Next race: Castilla y Leon

Ries looked really good on Etna, he really impressed me. As you say, Lopez was perhaps a bit underwhelming. Castilla y Leon could be a nice race to score some results.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Ivan Basso, Fran Contador and the Kometa CEO were present at the Giro 2020 Grande Partenza reveal in Budapest. Remember, Kometa is a Hungarian company. 1 + 1 = ....

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Ivan Basso, Fran Contador and the Kometa CEO were present at the Giro 2020 Grande Partenza reveal in Budapest. Remember, Kometa is a Hungarian company. 1 + 1 = ....

Buda + Pest = Budapest

 

[Nirvana]

The step up to professional level to ride the Giro was already voiced by the team last winter when they announced the new sponsors (that are quite big), i think i posted an article here at the time.

Anyway what Francisco Contador said could be seen like an official confirmation:
https://video.gazzetta.it/budapest-giro-2020-francisco-contador-la-squadra-kometa-diventa-professional-correre-giro/7c0085e0-5f91-11e9-9fb6-a67661bf9bc3?vclk=home_generico%7Cbudapest-giro-2020-francisco-contador-la-squadra-kometa-diventa-professional-correre-giro

 

[Guszek]

4th and 5th on stages,11th in GC of Castilla y Leon. Another good performance by Stefano Oldani.
I think whole team did a good job in this difficult, windy race (3 riders in top 21, 4th place in team classification).

Next competition: Vuelta Asturias

 

[Mayomaniac]

LaFlo, do you know why they didn't resign Habtom?
I've heard stories about him beinflg hard to deal with when he rode for Bike Aid and they didn't resign him. It's a shame, the guy has a ton of potential.

 

[Guszek]

Today Vuelta Aragon kicks off. Kometa Team on the startlist with Juanpe Lopez, Gazzoli and Oldani. No difficult MTT finish this year, so I think it can be a good chance for Oldani.

 

[LaFlorecita]

6 guys in the top-20 in the prologue of the Tour of Hungary. Awesome!

This is also the first race for the team for new signing Márton Dina from Hungary