Former Formula One driver Ukyo Katayama has joined the ownership group behind Team Polti VisitMalta, becoming a partner of Alberto and Fran Contador and Ivan Basso in the Italian-registered ProTeam’s cycling project.
The move brings together two organisations that have spent recent years trying to develop riders outside the WorldTour. Katayama founded the Japanese Continental outfit Team UKYO, while the Contador brothers and Basso have built their professional team through the Fundación Contador structure.
Polti VisitMalta announced Katayama’s arrival on Monday 26 October. It is an ownership development rather than a rider transfer, and it creates a connection between a team already competing at ProTeam level and one with long-standing ambitions to take Japanese cycling to the biggest races.
Katayama brings a Japanese cycling project to the partnership
Katayama is best known outside cycling for his Formula One career, which included spells with Larrousse, Tyrrell and Minardi during the 1990s. After leaving the championship he remained involved in motorsport, but cycling became another major part of his sporting work.
His Team UKYO organisation entered the UCI Continental ranks in 2012 and has become a regular presence in Asian and European racing. The team’s stated ambition has been to reach the Tour de France with a Japanese-backed squad, something that requires access to racing and resources well beyond the Continental calendar.
By joining the Contador and Basso ownership group, Katayama gains a connection to an established ProTeam structure with experience of Grand Tour invitations. For the existing team’s management, the relationship offers a route towards greater involvement with Japanese cycling, one of the sport’s established markets outside Europe.
It is important to distinguish that opportunity from a confirmed change of racing licence. The announcement of a new shareholder does not, by itself, establish that the two teams will combine their rosters or that Team UKYO will cease to operate separately.
Contador and Basso’s team has grown through development
The project now known as Team Polti VisitMalta has been guided by Alberto Contador, his brother Fran and two-time Giro d’Italia winner Basso. Its roots lie in the development structure associated with the Fundación Contador, which progressed from Continental racing to the second division of professional cycling in 2021.
The team raced as Eolo-Kometa before Polti joined the project for 2024. VisitMalta became a title partner in 2025, reflecting the organisation’s efforts to attract commercial backing beyond its original Italian and Spanish base.
On the road, its successes include Lorenzo Fortunato’s victory on Monte Zoncolan at the 2021 Giro d’Italia and Davide Bais’s breakaway stage win on Gran Sasso in 2023. The team has also developed riders such as Davide Piganzoli before their progression to WorldTour squads.
That record helps explain why the project is an attractive partner for someone with Katayama’s ambitions. Polti VisitMalta already has the organisational framework, staff and experience of competing at the level to which Team UKYO has been aspiring.
What could the deal mean for 2027?
Questions about the team’s identity and commercial backing will now become more prominent as preparations for 2027 continue. There had already been speculation about closer ties between Polti VisitMalta and Team UKYO, including the possibility of a future combined structure.
Katayama’s entry into the ownership group is a concrete step beyond those discussions. It does not necessarily mean, however, that Team Polti VisitMalta will immediately adopt a new name, move to a different UCI registration or take over the Japanese team’s riders.
Nor should the investment be treated as an automatic step into the WorldTour. Moving from ProTeam to cycling’s top division depends on a much broader combination of sporting results, financing and UCI licensing requirements.
The immediate development is that Contador, Basso and Katayama will be involved in the same ownership project. The next announcements about sponsors, sporting organisation and the 2027 roster will show how far that relationship changes the team seen on the road.
