2026 will be a very important year for Solution Tech-Nippo-Rali. The Italian professional training was “joined” by two new brands in the role of supporting the activity, the Panamanian bicycle company Rali and the Japanese engineering company Nippo. The arrival of the new Japanese sponsor seems to have given an important role to the 41-year-old rider in the environment of the Tuscan team Yukiya Arashiro, who will be on the staff as “effective”, but who will have a technical role, also, if not above all, in the development of younger athletes.
Arashiro, in this pre-season phase, is expressing the ideas and concepts that will presumably be implemented throughout the 2026 season: “I aim to compete a lot and to see the Japanese guys do it too – the words of the former Bahrain Victorious collected by CycloWired – Last year the best thing for me was feeling good in the team. Furthermore, I noticed that other runners listened to my advice.”
Arashiro recounts an episode from the 2025 season that left a lasting impression on him: “At the Tour of Thailand Lorenzo Quartucci he had won a stage and at that moment we thought we had the opportunity to collect precious UCI points looking at the general classification. But in the last two stages Lorenzo didn’t find any teammate close by who could help him (in the end Quartucci finished third in that short stage race – ed.). My impression at that moment was that the team wasn’t working with the aim of helping the teammate who could win.”
The Japanese have a very clear point of view: “Well-defined plans are needed, sporting directors make the decisions, but comparisons between riders are also necessary – Arashiro’s words – In today’s cycling everyone must have a clear task and, when needed, everyone must help the captain. Instead, up to that point the approach was ‘let’s go on the run, if necessary we’ll pull the group and then we’ll sprint’. I expressed my opinions and I believe I earned the trust of my teammates.”
As the weeks went by, according to Arashiro things improved in terms of team performance: “We were able to change some aspects of the team step by step – argues the Japanese – By setting a good example, everyone started helping out and in the second part of the season things got better“.
Not enough, however, to grab that thirtieth place in the seasonal UCI team ranking which was worth the possibility of being invited to the 2026 Grand Tours: “We came close, thanks to my second place at the Tour of Binzhou and the victory in the general classification of the Tour de Kyushu (obtained from Kyrylo Tsarenko – editor’s note), ma la Vf Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè she scored points during the Italian Classics at the end of the season and we couldn’t keep up with her.”
Arashiro, however, does not see the fact of not being able to be even among the candidates to participate in the 2026 Giro d’Italia as entirely negative: “We saw that the Professional teams that took part in the 2025 Giro still had a gap compared to the WorldTour teams and did not collect much. For us it is better not to go to the 2026 Giro, we would not be ready yet. This team has a way of operating that is still linked to Italian tradition, but cycling has changed a lot in recent years. We have to improve this thing“.
