Pozzovivo joins NTT Pro Cycling in 2020
NTT Pro Cycling is happy to announce that Italian veteran, Domenico Pozzovivo, will join our team having signed a 2-year contract, commencing in 2020.
The 2019 season was shaping up to be another consistent year by the Italian professional from Policoro, as a 2 nd place overall at the Tour of Oman was followed up by strong supporting roles at both Paris-Nice and the Giro d’Italia.
The 37-year-old then raced the Tour de Suisse and Tour de Pologne, placing 7 th and 12 th respectively, in preparation to lead his former Bahrain-Merida team at the 2019 Vuelta a Espana. Just a week before the Spanish grand tour got underway, a career threatening injury ruled Pozzovivo out of action.
The Italian was struck by a car while out training in the south of Italy, suffering multiple fractures in his leg, upper and lower arms and collarbone. After requiring multiple surgeries, an extensive period of rehabilitation followed for Pozzovivo, where he has since showed remarkable progress.
Confident of a return to the top level of the sport, something Pozzovivo has done once before after breaking his leg during the 2014 season, NTT Pro Cycling is looking to Pozzovivo’s 15-year professional career experience and fighting character to add depth to our young stage racing roster.
Among Pozzovivo’s palmares, his 13 professional victories are complemented by 18 grand tour participations, at which he achieved a general classification top 10 placing on 7 occasions.
Domenico Pozzovivo – Rider
I would like to thank Douglas Ryder and the management of NTT Pro Cycling to accept the challenge of allowing me to return to my usual high level of cycling. Already, since the long period of hospitalization and then with a hard physiotherapy job, I started to work tenaciously on my recovery. My healing will continue in the next months and I’m confident that together with the team we will win this bet. I can’t wait to meet my teammates and the staff at the next training camp and then to come back to the races.
Douglas Ryder – Team Principal
We are very happy to have Domenico choose to ride for NTT Pro Cycling for the foreseeable future. We needed a climbing specialist with GC aspirations to complement the team we have assembled for 2020. Domenico has been so consistent over the years, his experience will add huge value to the younger climbers in our team, and the true grit he has shown since his accident proves his passion and commitment to his own career and the sport of cycling. We look forward to the contribution he can make.
About NTT Pro Cycling
Founded in 2007, NTT Pro Cycling (formerly Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka) became the first-ever African cycling team to gain a WorldTour license, in 2016. With the support of our headline sponsor and technology innovation partner, NTT, we are the most purpose-driven, performance-led, and technology-enabled team in pro cycling today.
Our ambition is to continue to race at the highest levels in world cycling, to develop riders to realise their full potential and to inspire and motivate people across the African continent to ride bicycles.
We have bases in South Africa, the Netherlands and Italy.
We also ride to raise awareness for Qhubeka, a global charity operating in South Africa, through our #BicyclesChangeLives campaign.
The hands on the back of the team race jersey are a reminder that every Qhubeka bicycle is a helping hand up to a beneficiary, which are provided through Qhubeka's learn-to-earn and work-to-earn programmes
About Qhubeka
Qhubeka is a charity that moves people forward with bicycles. People earn bicycles through our programmes, improving their access to schools, clinics and jobs.
A bicycle is a tool that helps people to travel faster and further, and to carry more. In the face of extreme and persistent poverty, bicycles can change lives by helping to address socioeconomic challenges at the most basic level – helping people to get where they need to go.
About NTT Ltd.
NTT Ltd. is a global technology services company bringing together the expertise of leaders in the field, including NTT Communications, Dimension Data and NTT Security. We partner with organizations around the world to shape and achieve outcomes through intelligent technology solutions. For us, intelligent means data driven, connected, digital and secure. As a global ICT provider, we employ more than 40,000 people in a diverse and dynamic workplace and deliver services in over 200 countries and regions. Together we enable the connected future.
Visit us at our new website hello.global.ntt
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