Twelve new faces in the U23 structure of the Fundación Contador for the season 2022

The U23 project of the Fundación Contador, again under the name EOLO-KOMETA, incorporates twelve riders for the 2022 season. After a great year in sporting terms, the training structure faces a deep renewal in a squad that increases its number of members, substantially rejuvenates its roster, also reinforces its Spanish-Italian condition and takes a step further in its training vocation as a seedbed of riders for the ProTeam EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team.

Seventeen riders will make up the team squad, a formation that in 2022 will have Rafa Díaz Justo and Dario Andriotto in the sporting direction. Of the seventeen, twelve cyclists will join a project in which the veteran base will be Fernando Tercero from La Mancha, Javi Serrano from Madrid, the Catalan Arnau Gilabert and the Italians Andrea Montoli and Davide Piganzoli.

Of the twelve new additions, seven will be Spanish riders and five Italian cyclists. Two of the new faces, the Balearic Marc Terrasa Gual, winner of the Spanish Cup 2021 in the junior category, and Antonio González Torres from Soria, winner of the last Volta a Talavera, are promoted from the youth squad directed by the Cantabrian Guillermo Gutiérrez.

The Asturians Ramón Fernández Cuesta (Froiz) and Pablo Uria Iglesias (Gomur) and the Catalans David Domínguez Vilchez (Globalia Salamanca), Francisco Muñoz Llana (Team MP Group) and Marcel Camprubí Pijuan (Antiga Casa Bellsola) complete the Spanish squad. Camprubí, trained in triathlon, has stood out this season with great results on the road, with his national runner-up in a demanding edition of the championships held in Alicante or a partial victory in the Vuelta a Madrid. Pablo Uría finished third in the last edition of the prestigious Memorial Valenciaga.

The Italian squad includes Sebastiano Minoia, Edoardo Mauro Alleva, Gabriele Raccagni, Manuel Oioli and the more experienced Andrea Pietrobon. Alleva and Oioli come from the youth category and last season they rode for U.C. Bustese Olonia, a cycling company with which the Contador Foundation works intensively on Italian soil. Oioli has been one of the riders with the most victories in 2021 in the Italian junior category. Minoia, current Lombardy junior champion, and Raccagni come from Feralpi Monteclarense. Andrea Pietrobon, meanwhile, comes from Team Friuli and has been a regular in the top-10 of a multitude of races on the Italian calendar throughout 2021.

“We started working on a new project, which is always exciting. The 2021 campaign began conditioned by the pandemic and exceptionally, because we couldn’t leave anyone in the lurch, we didn’t hesitate to count on riders in the elite category. But for this year we are going back to the previous idea, something we were all aware of at the beginning of the season, and consequently the whole structure has undergone a major rejuvenation. We have a very interesting block, with very valid profiles for different terrains. In 2022 we want to do more international races in the U23 category and intensify the competitive exchanges between Spain and Italy”, says the director from Toledo, Rafa Díaz Justo.