Aidan Buttigieg signs for two seasons with Team Polti Kometa
Maltese rider Aidan Buttigieg will ride in the colours of the Italian team for the next two years, after his good role as a stagiaire in the final part of this season.
Three classics in September and October allowed Aidan Buttigieg to make his professional debut with Team Polti Kometa. An opportunity that was a success and is now confirmed with his incorporation in the squad for the next two seasons. A cyclist who will make a reality the projection of Malta not only as a tourist destination but also as a sporting potential, thanks to a partnership between country and team that is also reinforced for 2025.
He raced in Matteotti, Agostoni and Bernocchi with the illusion of representing a whole country in the professional peloton, and already at that moment Buttigieg confirmed his desire to learn. ‘I really enjoyed the three opportunities to race in Italy, classics with so much history, in which I couldn’t finish, but they have been a great progress for me also as a learning experience in order to be able to help my team-mates’.
The goals become much more ambitious for him now: ‘I want to thank everyone who trusts me and encourages me. As a cyclist, I have fulfilled everyone’s dream and I can’t wait to start showing what I can bring to Team Polti Kometa. I want to remember my family, my grandparents and my country Malta which I will represent with great pride, putting the island on the cycling map’.
‘The beginning of the year will be a time to continue learning, to gain experience and to try to take advantage of all the competitions I compete in. All this without forgetting to help promote Malta in all countries and events, which is something that excites me,’ says Buttigieg. ‘The breakaways, and even the opportunities that arise from these racing situations, will be my priority, always at the service of what my team-mates need’.
‘Thanks to Visit Malta for their support for the team, to Ivan Basso and Valerio Agnoli, who have allowed something we have worked and strived for over many years to become a reality’. All that remains is the wish that this rider can grow in sporting terms in a project that will accompany that progression.
Stefano Zanatta, sports director: ‘Naturally, an athlete like Aidan is an ideal incentive to promote Maltese cycling and give prestige to a country that is supporting us more and more. Wearing the national champion’s jersey in competition is also a source of great pride. But beyond this, he is a rider who shows good numbers, he is a fast passista who will find his ideal place in our squad’.
