The men cycling team created by Cycling Tartu, which developes young cyclists from the Baltic countries and Finland, will start its seventh season in 2024 under the commercial name of Voltas-Tartu 2024 by CCN.
Besides the city of Tartu, the new co-title sponsors are the Lithuanian company Voltas (they offer design, installation, start-up and adjustment and maintenance of electrical engineering solutions) and the Chinese cycling clothing manufacturer CCN.
Estonians Aaron Aus, Lauri Tamm and Siim Kiskonen will continue in the team. Martti Lenzius and Oskar Küüt coming from juniors will strengthen the Estonian presence in the team. The Latvian locomotive Alekss Krasts will also be one of the pillars of the team during the upcoming season, and Gusts Lapins, coming out of the junior class, will join his compatriot. The two Lithuanians, Jomantas Venckus and Rokas Adomaitis, are joined by their compatriots Kristupas Mikutis and Žygimantas Matuzevičius. Kristupas' brother Aivaras rode in the Tartu team two seasons ago. The time trial specialist is racing now in the Switzerland's Tudor cycling team managed by Fabian Cancellara, the multiple time trial world champion.
A big step forward is the cooperation with the Finnish son-father duo Antti Aleksandr and Anatoli Sizko, who will take the team also to the Asian Tour in addition to the European Tour. Under the leadership of Antti, the Finns Veeti Vainio and Jaakko Sillankorva and the experienced Norwegian Kristian Klevgard have joined the team too. Antti and Anatoli also contribute by bringing in equipment sponsors. The team gets new partners from Asia. Dressed by CCN Sports, wheels from Scom and bikes supplied by Taiwanese brand Motion.
"The goal for 2024 is the same as every year. To develop young cyclists and create prerequisites for the transfer of the most talented men to the world's top teams," commented team leader Jaan Kirsipuu.
In 2023, the most productive man of the Tartu 2024 Cycling Team, Markus Pajur, will move on to EC St Etienne Loire. Well known cycling team in France for Cycling Tartu’s people. Siim Kiskonen also rode for the french amateur team a few seasons. Markus won five golds from Estonian Championships, he was crowned the champion of xco, cyclo cross, mtb marathon, gravel and xce. He did an excellent European Championships elite road race, but a good result was ruined by a late crash.
"The 2023 season was a bit of a off year for us, because none of the young guys moved on, but even helping Siim Kiskonen to win the Solidarity and Olympic Champions Tour showed that young men have what it takes and Markus Pajur deserves more. I believe that the Lithuanian elite men's group race champion Rokas Adomaitis and our Lauri Tamm and Aaron Aus will be able to take the next step already in the coming season. Alekss Krasts was already very close to the big results this year, and the new men are eager to make it happen too,” praised the former cycling pro.
The Lithuanian sports director Gediminas Bagdonas and the Latvian coach Toms Flaksis will continue supporting the youngsters and form the guiding trio for the youngsters on the European soil.
Foto: Tomas Gaubis
Lauri Tamm during the Baltic Championships 2023