Team News: Nizzolo Leads NTT at Burgos

NTT Pro Cycling has confirmed its selection for Vuelta a Burgos which sees the seven-rider line up spearheaded by Giacomo Nizzolo, winner of the opening stage of the 2019 event.

Team News: Nizzolo Leads NTT at Burgos

NTT Pro Cycling has confirmed its selection for Vuelta a Burgos which sees the seven-rider line up spearheaded by Giacomo Nizzolo, winner of the opening stage of the 2019 event.

The 2019 edition saw Nizzolo take a photo-finish win in dramatic fashion on stage one, which he followed up with a second place on stage two, ensuring that he led the race for two days. The Italian comes into the race following the conclusion of a highly successful team training camp in Lucca, Italy, and with confidence following stage victories at the Tour Down Under as well as at Paris-Nice earlier this year.

He will be supported in expected sprint finishes by Max Walscheid. The German also made an excellent start to 2020, winning two stages at the Tour de Langkawi as well as claiming the green points jersey. Our contingent of climbers sees the trio of Louis Meintjes, Ben O’Connor and Danilo Wyss all on the start line, where they’ll be joined by Benjamin Dyball. The 31-year-old Australian has yet to make his debut for NTT Pro Cycling after missing the early part of the year with illness.

Our line up is completed with the late inclusion of Nicholas Dlamini. The 24-year-old South African takes to the start line for the first time this year having missed the early part of the season due to a an arm injury. One man that misses out is local Carlos Barbero. A triple stage-winner at this event in the past, the Spaniard unfortunately sustained a broken left hand hand in a crash while training at our recently completed team training camp. He will undergo surgery and is expected to make a swift recovery.

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Bjarne Riis, Team Manager: After the enforced break our team training camp in Lucca was an excellent way to bring everything that we’ve been working on all together. We had a very successful period of time spent together: team spirit is very high, our preparation has been excellent and we all can’t wait to get back to racing now.

I’m excited for the team that we’ve selected for Burgos, and I look forward to seeing what they’re able to do in what looks to be a very strong field.

Giacomo Nizzolo: The camp was great; we had a brilliant time, trained very well and I’m really looking forward to Burgos. We’re definitely ready to race again. It was a great week for us last year where I was able to secure victory in the opening stage and from there we were always in contention in the sprint stages, so it was a great feeling. This year the approach will be a bit different, as we also look a little further down the line to Milan-Sanremo but of course if I get the chance to score a result then I will always try and go for it.

Nicholas Dlamini: I’ve haven’t pinned on a number in about 10 months, if not more, and so I’m very excited and nervous. I’ve done all the preparation and I’m feeling really good. I’m really looking forward to the race, to be on the start line and having a number on my back, that’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ve got a strong line up and obviously getting a late call up to this race is really cool. Being able to start racing even earlier than originally planned is a good thing for me, as I can get my head into it much quicker and earlier. Burgos is a really nice race, it was actually my very first race as a stagiaire so it’s nice to be heading back.

Carlos Barbero: I am really disappointed having crashed and broken a bone in my hand as I was really looking forward to starting the race. I was in really good condition but sometimes these things happen. I’ve already shifted my mind to full focus on the recovery process and be back racing with my teammates as soon as possible again