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Pirelli, which recently inked a partnership with pro continental team Aqua Blue Sport, has revealed a new partnership with the Mitchelton-SCOTT cycling team, currently number two in the UCI World Tour ranking.
The debut will take place in just over two weeks at the Tour de France, where most of the athletes in the Australian team will be using the new Pirelli tubular tyres.
The partnership was announced at a press conference attended by Antonella Lauriola, COO of Pirelli Velo, Piero Misani, chief technological officer two wheels Pirelli, Mario Isola, head of car racing Pirelli, and Simon Yates, one of the top athletes in Mitchelton-SCOTT.
To celebrate the agreement, Yates completed a lap on the Paul Ricard circuit riding his Scott bike fitted out with the new Pirelli tubulars.
During the months leading up to the Tour de France, the Mitchelton-SCOTT team and Pirelli R&D personnel have been working together, in a constant exchange of technical feedback, with a total of 300,000 km covered with the new tubular tyres, in races and testing sessions conducted jointly by Pirelli professional testers and the team riders, and several World Tour races already ridden without showing the brand name.
“Pirelli is the choice of top-notch athletes and the very best teams in many high-level sports,” said Antonella Lauriola, COO of Pirelli Business Unit Velo. “It was only natural that in cycling too we would be the choice of a leading team such as Mitchelton-SCOTT. To Pirelli, each bike, each cyclist and each and every racing condition calls for a different product. This is the way we work in motorsport championships too. We are certain that this partnership will yield significant results, not only in terms of race wins, but also and primarily in terms of product development.”
“The tyre is arguably the most important piece of equipment available to a professional road cyclist. There’s an incredible amount of trust that goes into a very small contact patch to the road,” added Kevin Tabotta, Mitchelton-SCOTT team performance director. “We have been really happy with the development of the tyres. Pirelli has been excellent in the way they’ve communicated with our athletes and taken on board their feedback. We have ended up with a fantastic fast, grippy, comfortable tyre that handles incredibly well.”
