After having announced the signing of climber Edward Ravasi, TJ Sport, the team currently known as Lampre-Merida, will enrich the group of young talented riders by adding the speed of Simone Consonni and the all-round skills of Oliviero Troia.

The two riders from Team Colpack have signed the agreements which allow them to turn pro and to wear the jersey of TJ Sports for at least the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Simone Consonni, born in 1994, is the current Italian champion in the Under 23 category and runner-up at the 2015 world championships.
Thanks to his speed, he succesfully rides both on the road and thetrack. He recently participated in the 2016 Olympic Games in the team pursuit. He has been monitored for a long time by Giuseppe Saronni.

"I had many satisfactions in my years as Under 23 rider. It's now time to show my skills in the pro world: I'm motivated for this important step in my career.

"Team Colpack was fundamental in helping me to achieve top results. I thank all the team's members and I also thank TJ Sport group for having chosen me as one of their team's members."

Oliviero Troia was born on 1994. He's a very strong rouleur and has impressive physical qualities. He'll become a key rider in support of the team's captains and, especially in the northern races and he'll have freedom to try to achieve good results.

Troia is also a rider of Team Colpack and he's riding as stagaire in LAMPRE-MERIDA:

"It's the dream of every young cyclist which is becoming real for me, I'm so happy. I thank my family, Team Colpack and all the members of TJ Project, it's a big opportunity for my cycling career".

The group of young riders joins a solid basis of 10 riders who were already contracted: Matteo Bono, Kristijan Durasek, Roberto Ferrari, Marko Kump, Louis Meintjes, Sacha Modolo, Matej Mohoric, Przemyslaw Niemiec, Simone Petilli and Federico Zurlo. In addition to these riders, TJ Sport have already announced the renewal of the contracts of Valerio Conti, Rui Costa, Jan Polanc and Diego Ulissi and the new signings of Darwin Atapuma and Ben Swift.