The two-time Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso joins the Board of Directors of Kometa Italia together with Fabio Valle, who already serves as Chief Commercial Officer of Kometa, an official partner of the Giro d'Italia.

The Varese champion, leading the Polti-Visit Malta cycling team, will contribute his experience as a rider and team manager to the development of Kometa in the Italian market, an agri-food company specialized in processing and transforming pork and poultry meats, with offices in Hungary and Italy and distribution in over 40 countries worldwide.

The two new board members join Amadio Contenti, Board Chairman, Filippo Negri, Director of Kometa Italia, and Giuseppe Ballerini, sales manager for the meat sector at Kometa 99 zrt and board member.

"Kometa – explains Giacomo Pedranzini, CEO of the parent company Kometa 99 zrt – proposes good and healthy food, combined with an active lifestyle for a healthy and hardworking society. We support sports, particularly cycling, which educates and trains our youth in effort and sacrifice. For years – Pedranzini continues – we have collaborated with Ivan Basso with great satisfaction, supporting the cycling team he created with the Fundación Alberto Contador. From 2025, in his new role as board member of Kometa Italia, Basso will contribute to the growth and development process of our company, during a phase characterized by significant product innovations and communication investments. Ivan will enrich us with new ideas and out-of-the-box visions, strengthening our determination to excel and innovate".

"First of all – says Basso – I want to thank Pedranzini and his entire work group for their fundamental contribution to our journey so far and for the great opportunity to contribute to the development of a major company by being part of its board. This appointment, which represents a stage in a professional path begun at the end of my sports career, fills me with pride, stimulates me and provides continuity to a journey begun almost ten years ago. A journey that has brought us to achieve most of the sporting objectives we had set for ourselves with the cycling team, but it is fundamental to continue improving and always aim to do better. This – Basso concludes – will be my goal together with the Kometa group, inspired by a motto that from this year will also be ours: What you train, you become".