EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team U19 adds ten new faces: nine second year riders and six, first year riders

The U19 structure of the Contador Foundation faces what will be his eleventh season of existence with a squad of fifteen riders in which ten new faces are incorporated, four of second year in the category and six of first year. Ten new arrivals in addition to the announced arrival of Gorka Beloki as the sporting director of the squad.

The first year U19 riders joining the project are Iker Díaz from Bilbao (Logos Ferrenor Team), Mario Gómez from Cantabria (Peña Ciclista Sprint), Pablo Leno por Cáceres (HyD Pinturas-Carbajosa Empresarial), Iván Loaisa from Granada (Indeso Gold Bikes Jerez) and Daniel Díaz (Escuela Ciclista Rodríguez Magro) and Hugo Pradas (Cadalso MTB), both from Madrid.

Second year riders are Gerard Cano (UC Vilanova) from Girona, Miguel Domínguez (Bathco- CC Besaya) from Salamanca, Samuel Flórez (Vigo-Rias Baixas) from Colombia and Álvar Martín (Recambios Callejo) from Burgos. Héctor García from Murcia, Iván Polo from Valladolid, Manuel Sanroma from Castilla-La Mancha and the Hungarians Balint Feldhoffer and Balasz Pollner remain in the team.

Gorka Beloki, in charge of the U19 project: “After a first contact in Pinto where we all got to know each other and laid the first foundations, I think we have a very well-balanced squad. I see the lads very well, eager to start with a project that for many is new, with a desire to work and with a point of expectation before the change in management. There are kids that sportingly have to take a step forward, already thinking about the U23 category for the future, because in the end our main objective is that the junior kids become U23 riders and have a good formation. In December we will face a first training camp to go a bit deeper into everything and start to see things on the bike”.

Fran Contador, general manager of the Contador Foundation teams: “It may sound a bit repetitive, but whenever we talk about the U19 team the first thing that comes to mind is one word: excitement. Excitement for the new season, excitement for the new project, excitement to see so many excited looks… It’s going to be a different season, a year with ten new faces and with the novelty of Gorka Beloki in management, which is also a very important change after so many years of work with Guillermo Gutiérrez. That excitement makes you look forward to the start of the new project. And we are confident of making progress and further improving the great objective that we set ourselves: the best training for the boys at an academic and sporting level and the realisation in the greatest number of cases of their leap to the U23 structure”.