The contract has been for two years and includes a project that will involve him as a manager in the future. Damiano Cunego will be the leader of Nippo-Vini Fantini until 2018 and from 2019, he will have a new role in the team to help young talents of the team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

NIPPO Vini Fantini and Damiano Cunego have linked their future with a renewal of the contract for another two years (2017 and 2018), looking forward to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and a new role for Cunego in the team management starting from 2019 if he decides to stop his career.

The growth and the new mentality of Damiano Cunego as key man for the team just began. Stopped by some crashes, he will retuen to competition on Thursday.

With the new role as key man and mentor for the youngest talents of the team, Cunego has decided to link his future to the NIPPO Vini Fantini team to continue the growing process in a team with a clear project and a five-year vision.

“I want to make three great seasons as a rider in this team," he said. “Already one and an half year ago when I signed for this team for the first time, I decided that it was the most clear project with a vision that appealedto me. My role was supposed to be as a leader and as a mentor for youngest generation of talents in the team. The staff and the riders, in a single year, have grown a lot in terms of experience and with them my desire to be part of this great project to continue to ride at a high level.

“First of all I have this 2016 season to do as best as I can with the goal to make great things in the 2016 Giro d’Italia. Then I will ride for sure for another two years with the NIPPO Vini Fantini team, and if I decide to stop my career after the 2018 season, I already have an agreement with the team management for a new role as key man of the team and a link between sports directors, sports trainers and riders. It'sa perfect role for me that links my experience of rider and the studies that I’m doing in University and all the things that I’m learning from Gianni Tendola, the sports trainer of the team. It is a role that usually doesn’t exist in professional teams, but I am looking forward to the future of the team with this clear vision and this team could also be in another category in 2019."

Francesco Pelosi, General Manager of the team, describes the idea of the double role as a rider and later as a key man of the team:

“This team is founded on a new approach to cycling, based on a clear project and transparency with the public. We have chosen Damiano Cunego as first symbol and team leader and this renewal is the natural consequence looking forward to our future. The best is yet to come, Damiano is ready to give the best to this team, some crashes just slowed his return to victory, but already in 2016 and in the next two years we will reach great satisfactions together.

“The project keeps going, also thanks to the important invitations and wild cards the team received thanks to the trust of the organizers, that give us the opportunity to show the great cycling to our Japanese partners. Our team is focused on the cultural bridge between Italy and Japan that can give our Japanes partner NIPPO the great chance to culminate 30 years of investment in cycling by takig young talents to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Our ambitious goal is to have Italian and Japanese talents in the Olympic Games of Tokyo and our growing process is based on an important figure that Damiano Cunego is for the young riders in the team, able to teach team a winning mentality, a serious way to approach the pro world, the sport and a rider life. In the next two years we will grow, both with quality riders, young riders but already with some experience, and the team will become more competitive. Our renewal is first of all as rider and then from 2019, with the growth of the team, it will be necessary to have a role to connect sports directors, sportrts trainer and riders in the best way as possibile and we already found the perfect person to do it, Damiano Cunego."

Valentino Sciotti, president of honor of the team, was there at the moment of the signature, as he was there one and an half year ago when the project got life with the signature of Damiano Cunego:

“I really appreciate Damiano Cunego's style, I also did so before his signature with our team because his way of doing sport and cycling fits perfectly with my mentality. Tenacity, humility, professionalism and genuine transparency. I really hope that Damiano will go on as a rider also after 2018, but in case he will decide to stop riding, he will have the chance to be part of the team, beginning a new career in the cycling world.”