Italian Stefano Oldani, new rider of the Belgian Lotto-Soudal

The great season of the Italian Stefano Oldani in the Kometa Cycling Team has not gone unnoticed by the WorldTour structures. The Lombard cyclist will race the next two seasons in the Belgian Lotto-Soudal, a signing that began to materialize during the dispute of the last Tour de France, in the days in which he shared dates with the Giro del Valle de Aosta, and crystallized definitively in August. He is the third rider to jump from the Kometa Cycling Team to the WorldTour after the signings of Michel Ries and Juan Pedro López for the Trek-Segafredo.

The versatile Italian cyclist, who disembarked as a stagiaire in the continental team in August 2018 in order to compete in the Vuelta a Hungría (which that year was held at the beginning of the eighth month of the year), has been one of the most outstanding riders in the continental structure of the Alberto Contador Foundation during this fiscal year 2019.

Although he has not been able to achieve a much sought-after victory, he has added up to seventeen places in the top ten in the 61 days of competition he has faced so far during the campaign. Of all those places, eight were in the top-five. His second place in the third stage of the Istrian Spring Trophy or in the second stage of the Giro Valle d´Aosta, as well as his fourth position in the Vuelta a Castilla y León or Vuelta a Asturias.

The victory has been resisted, we have been close on several occasions, but we have not been able to achieve it. Anyway, we have been there, fighting, fighting, always giving everything for this team and for the teammates. This season and a half in the Kometa Cycling Team has been fundamental for this opportunity to arise,” explains Oldani.

“I’m very grateful to Fran Contador and Ivan Basso for counting on me for this project. I’ve learned a lot and I hope that both the team and my team-mates will continue to take steps forward. I have to thank all the team members, riders and staff very much, because they made me feel like a family. This last year has been wonderful and unforgettable”, says the Milanese cyclist.

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)