"A very important first year in the professional category for NIPPO - Vini Fantini." This is the comment of the general manager of the team, Italian Francesco Pelosi, when asked to draw the balance of the team after 2015.

Pelosi emphasizes the importance of both results from the sporting and emotional points of view.

“All the fans were able to watch the documentary ‘Dreaming of the Giro’, one of many large projects by the team this year, a taste of what we experienced every day of 2015," he told Spaziociclismo. "Sports directors Mario Manzoni and Stefano Giuliani, along with Hiroshi Daimon, have created a close-knit and cohesive group. Clearly enthusiasm is not enough so I am satisfied with the 11 victories and two overall stage race wins by Colli and Stacchiotti [the Tour of China 1 and Tour de Hokkaido, ed.]. To be in double figures in the first year, with many young people making their debut among the professionals was unexpected. Earlier this year we got what we wanted and could, with places of honours and podiums for Damiano Cunego, Daniele Colli and Eduard Grosu that could have been victories. 

“In the Giro d’Italia, our two leaders [Cunego and Colli, ed.] did not exactly had luck, but the team has shown itself with numerous breakaways, placings and the Fair Play award. In the second part of the season we were given the just satisfaction, we finally reaped the rewards of hard work and started to build for 2016. The many young riders who made the jump in 2015, will be at their best in their second year."

"In 2015, beyond the fortunes and misfortunes, the team has proved to be an important new reality for Italian cycling,” added Pelosi. “That cannot be based only on the individual sports results. New sponsors have come to cycling and most fans and new fans have appreciated the documentary produced by the team and sent on official TV with excellent results. The design for the 2016 season of the first Italian-Japanese professional team was recently presented at the Italian Embassy in Tokyo, in the presence of the Secretary General of the party currently in power in Japan, the head of Japan's cycling federation and of the leading Japanese companies and exponents of Italian products in Japan. It was a quite unique event in the world of cycling, let alone for a professional team in the first year. This sign of esteem is the most important signal about the quality of our path and of course an incentive to do better.”