Fabio Aru signs with Qhubeka-Assos

Italian Fabio Aru will try to get his career back on track with Qhubeka-Assos after three disappointing seasons with UAE-Emirates. Aru has signed a one-year contract with the South African team that recently found new sponsorship after a single year as NTT Pro Cycling.

?DONE DEAL?

We are thrilled to confirm that former @lavuelta champion @FabioAru1 will join Team Qhubeka ASSOS.

"I immediately felt that this was an environment that I wanted to be a part of"

➡️Read more: https://t.co/nattIUk8Dz#BicyclesChangeLives@assos_com @GettySport pic.twitter.com/cCHCWsLebO

— NTT Pro Cycling (@NTTProCycling) December 3, 2020

The height of Aru’s career was with Astana. Having podiumed in the 2014 Giro d’Italia with a stage win and placed fifth in the Vuelta a España that same year with two stage wins, Aru won the 2015 Vuelta after coming runner-up in that season’s Giro.

A Tour de France high mark came two seasons later; Aru won on La Planche des Belles Filles while wearing the Italian national champion’s jersey. In Paris he would claim fifth on GC.

But glory dried up at UAE-Emirates, as first gluten and dairy intolerance and then a constriction of the iliac artery hampered his racing. Of the five Grand Tours he raced for UAE, he didn’t finish three of them, and never came higher than 14th. This year he didn’t finish the Tour de France.

After securing WorldTour status with a new sponsor, Qhubeka-Assos has been in a flurry of signing, picking up Simon Clarke from EF Pro Cycling and Englishman Harry Tanfield among others.