Diego Rosa, first incoming of EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team 2022
Italian Diego Rosa will ride next season for EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team. The experienced cyclist from Corneliano d’Alba, who has ride the last two seasons in the French Team Arkea, becomes the first reinforcement of the ProTeam structure of the Contador Foundation for his second season in the category. The Piedmontese cyclist signs for one season.
Rosa (27 March 1989) began his cycling career in the world of mountain biking, a discipline in which he finished in the top-ten (8th) at the U23 World Championships in 2011. From there he began to focus on the road and after one seasons in the amateur field he made the breakthrough with Androni Giocattoli. He then rode two years with Astana and three with Team SKY, now Team Ineos, the team from which he joined the French team.
“I really wanted to return to a more Italian atmosphere, I missed it. I’ve been in France for two years and before that I spent three years in a British team. And before that at Astana, although it had a lot of Italian presence, in the end it was a Kazakh team. I’ve got to know different cycling realities and for 2022 I wanted to take this step. French cycling is a world apart, with its own different calendar, a very high level and a lot of national riders. Getting to know other realities is always enriching”, says the rider from Piedmont. “During the summer I spoke with Ivan Basso and Alberto Contador, we exchanged impressions and we quickly saw that there was good harmony. When a rider is calm and the atmosphere is good, everything is easier and so are the results. In this sense, I’m looking forward to enjoying my work and my teammates again… We’re already thinking about 2022”.
Diego Rosa’s track record includes a victory in the 2015 Milano-Torino, a stage in the 2016 Tour of the Basque Country and the overall in the 2018 Settimana Coppi e Bartali. In 2020 he was third in the Trofeo Laigueglia and tenth in the Strade Bianche. In the Giro di Lombardia, one of cycling’s five monuments, he finished second in 2016 and fifth in 2015.
“When a new team is born, when a new structure comes into cycling, you always pay attention to it. To see how they do it, to see how they are organised… With the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team there was also that curiosity. I had the opportunity to compete against the team in some races, like the Trofeo Laigueglia, the Strade Bianche, the GP Industria & Artigianato, the Tirreno-Adriatico… In the Vuelta a Asturias I was impressed. We were working hard there to get the overall with Nairo Quintana and whenever the race was selected the team was there. Lorenzo Fortunato had a great race, he looked very good for the Giro. We know each other, because he was a teammate of my brother Massimo, and during a training camp in Livigno he was talking to me about the organisation of the team, about the high altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada before the Giro d’Italia…”.
Ivan Basso, sport manager of EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team: “I have to say that I was immediately impressed by Diego: by his desire, by the spirit with which he accepted our proposal, by the desire to get involved with our jersey and our colors. He is a superior rider, he has done seasons at the highest level and we were looking for a rider exactly like him. I’m sure that Diego will be able to put on the tarmac everything he told me and transmitted in the meetings we had, and I’m sure that he will represent a very important element in the development process of our team”.
Fran Contador, general manager of EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team: “Diego is a rider with a long experience in WorldTour teams; we are talking about a rider with a great talent that we are sure that he will demonstrate his quality with us. Nowadays, the way cycling is, sometimes it seems that just because a rider is in his thirties, his career is almost over. Diego has a lot to contribute and to say. We are convinced that from the beginning he will show us all his worth. He will also bring a lot to the younger riders, given all his years of experience”.
