Ivan Santaromita will be wearing the SkyDive Dubai colours in 2016. The 31-year-old Italian has just finished two bad seasons with Orica GreenEDGE  and last week he signed with the Asian team led by Alberto Volpi and Ricardo Martins. He is ready to face what he describes as the toughest challenge of his career.

Although the team belongs to the continental circuit, the team has a great desire to grow and succeed at a high level which played an important role in Santaromita’s choice.

“I have just had two years to forget so I really want to get back into the game and show what I can really do,” he told Cyclingpro.net. “This year I only did 35 races compared to 80-90 in recent years. I really want to race.

“I loved the proposal by Alberto Volpi and Ricardo Martins. It is a small team, but they want to grow. I especially felt their desire to have me in the team next year and this prompted me to say yes. It is important to be with someone who puts trust in you.”

Despite their Asian background, Skydive Dubai have several Italians in the team.

“I'm happy to finally find some other Italians in my team, but I think that Volpi was most important in my choice,” Santaromita said. “I have missed a professional director who knows how to motivate me.”

Until now, the team has mostly been racing in Asia but Santaromita is confident that he will get to race in Europe too.

“We will surely do more races in Europe compared to this year,” he said. “In the calendar we have Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali and Giro del Trentino and I hope to receive an invitation for more races in Italy. The calendar is not final yet.

“I am about to begin the most difficult challenge of my career: to get from the bottom back to the top and I will try to do my best at every race I will do. Unfortunately, I will not ride the Giro and other major races but it is never easy to win, whether it’s a stage of the Giro or a minor race.”

Santaromita has started his preparation for 2016.

“I am still followed by Andrea Morelli of the Mapei Centre and I started training with some road cycling and mountain biking plus a bit of gym work, just like every year,” he said.

With his move, Santaromita hopes to contribute to a more global cycling world.

“I think we now have to get used to this globalization of cycling,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are fewer teams in Italy and Italians are increasingly disadvantaged. Finding a team abroad and adapt to other views is not always easy. Surely you have the opportunity to get more experiences that can be good or bad.”