2024, a season to forget
After a few years of being one of the best teams in the world, the 2024 season was much more difficult for Bahrain-Victorious. Indeed, the team only finished 17th in the UCI classification, with 13 wins throughout the season. This can be explained by some of their better riders nearing the end of their careers – the likes of Damiano Caruso and Wout Poels, who were far from their best level last year.
However, the younger generation is starting to knock on the door in the Grand Tours, with a top 10 at the Tour de France for the Colombian Santiago Buitrago and a top 5 at the Giro for Antonio Tiberi. The latter also added to his trophy cabinet his first ever stage race with the Tour de Luxembourg, while the former raised his arms at the top of Mont Brouilly during Paris-Nice. Pello Bilbao also had a great season in 2024 with a podium at the UAE Tour and a top 10 at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, showing great strength at 34 years old.
Bahrain-Victorious also managed to win some stages during World Tour races during bunch sprints with Phil Bauhaus (Tirreno-Adriatico) and Matevz Govekar (Tour of Guangxi) and from the breakaway, like Torstein Traeen (Tour de Suisse). Overall, despite these few good results, the year was quite poor for the team from the Middle-East compared to former seasons. Indeed, the total of 13 wins was the lowest amount for the team since 2020, in a season shortened due to Covid. Even worse, it was the first time since the team has been created in 2017 that no Bahrain-Victorious rider raised his arms on a Grand Tour stage.
Turning to the youth in 2025
During the transfer window, the recruitments made by Bahrain-Victorious confirmed that the team does not have the same finances as they had in the past. Indeed, except for the signing of the young French talent Lenny Martinez, the Bahraini team did not sign any riders with experience at the World Tour level, turning mainly to the new generation.
A total of nine riders will be reinforcing the ranks of Bahrain-Victorious next season. The most important of them is, as mentioned earlier, Lenny Martinez, who arrives from Groupama-FDJ. At 21 years old, the French climber had a great season, raising his arms five times in total and showing to the cycling world his very good climbing capacities throughout the season. With his new team, he should be a leader at bigger races, sharing leadership with Tiberi and Buitrago.
The other recruitments are also almost all very young but they have not the same experience at the professional level as Martinez. Indeed, apart from Mathijs Paaschens who arrives from Lotto-Dstny, none of them have even raced in a Pro Conti team before the 2025 season, as they are all coming from Continental or development teams. Among these new faces, Vlad Van Mechelen could be a great addition for the future of the Classics squad while Daniel Skerl and Afonso Eulalo should be ones to watch during bunch sprints, especially at smaller races. Last year, the former was part of CTF Victorious, the development team of Bahrain-Victorious, along with four other riders joining the World Tour team. Indeed, Oliver Stockwell, Roman Ermakov, Max Van der Meulen and Zak Erzen, the son of the General manager, were all part of the formation system of the Middle-Eastern team.
It is a risky bet for Bahrain-Victorious to promote such a great number of young riders, especially given that they lost a lot of experienced ones such as Wout Poels, Jasha Sutterlin and Yukiya Arashiro, who were very important riders for the collective. Let’s hope for Milan Erzen’s team that the young generation will make a name for themselves very early in the season and will allow the team to perform better than in 2024.
L-R Santiago Buitrago, Lenny Martinez and Antonio Tiberi will lead BV into 2025 (image credits: all Wikimedia Commons)
An interesting trio
In 2024, most of the great results of Bahrain-Victorious came from the climbers of the team, who managed to perform throughout the season. The Spanish Pello Bilbao had a great season with some good results at the UAE Tour for example, but he will turn 35 at the beginning of 2025, meaning that the best years of his career should be behind him. However, last season saw the confirmation of two great talents in the Middle-Eastern team: Antonio Tiberi and Santiago Buitrago.
At 23 years old, the Italian had the best season of his young career, finishing fifth at his first Giro, bringing home the youth classification and proving one of the most consistent during the three weeks. The rider from Frosinone also took home the Tour du Luxembourg ahead of Mathieu Van der Poel, winning the first general classification of his career. However, the season could have been even more beautiful for the young Italian, who was forced to withdraw from La Vuelta due to heatstroke, despite being fourth in the overall ranking at the time.
Santiago Buitrago is a bit older and more experienced than his teammate but he remains only 25 years old and has been establishing himself as one of the best climbers in the peloton over the past few years. Indeed, the Colombian has already triumphed twice on the roads of the Giro, winning two mountainous stages after spending the day in the breakaway. Last season, the native of Bogota chose to play the general classifications in the World Tour races, something that he did quite well, as proven by his tenth place overall for his first ever Tour de France. Buitrago also managed to raise his arms at the top of Mont Brouilly on the roads of Paris-Nice and finished fifth at La Flèche Wallonne, confirming his affinities with the Ardennes classics after his podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2023.
With the arrival of Lenny Martinez from Groupama-FDJ, this duo transforms into a trio that could be redoubtable for opponents. At only 21 years old, the Frenchman is considered as one of the biggest wonderkids in the world of cycling. He began his professional career at only 19 years old, the season after he won the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta, one of greatest U23 races. During his first two seasons in the World Tour peloton, the native of Cannes in Southern France already managed to raise his arms six times but also to wear the red jersey at his first Vuelta a Espana. In 2025, Martinez should have the role of leader at some World Tour races as he did last year, finishing in the top 10 at the Volta a Catalunya and at the Tour de Romandie. He will also surely have at heart the aim of shining on the roads of the Tour de France, after a first participation where he couldn’t perform as he would have wanted after a late change in his schedule.
With the help of the experienced Pello Bilbao and Damiano Caruso but also of riders such as Torstein Traeen or Jack Haig, this young trio should make visible the jersey of Bahrain-Victorious on the hardest climbs in the World in the seasons to come. It will be interesting to see how Milan Erzen and his staff manage the schedule of racing of these three young stars, who have the potential of becoming some of the greatest climbers in the world as early as next season.
Matej Mohorič, the pillar
Matej Mohorič’s name is inseparable from Bahrain-Victorious. Indeed, 2025 will be the eighth season of the Slovenian under the colours of the Middle-Eastern team, where he has always been one of the most important riders.
In the past few years, the native of Kranj has established himself as one of the most complete riders in the peloton, able to perform very well on all kinds of parcours. As soon as Matej Mohorič is at the start of a race, he is part of the list of outside favourites, whatever the type of race. Indeed, the Slovenian has already finished in the top 5 at Paris-Roubaix and at Liège-Bastogne-Liège but also won the general classification of the Tour of Poland in 2023. However, the biggest accomplishment of Mohorič is undeniably his triumph at Milano-Sanremo 2022, when he escaped from the lead group after a crazy descent of the Poggio. At 30 years old, the former Gravel World Champion is also part of the club of stage winners at the three Grand Tours, all of them following breakaways on hilly profiles.
In 2024, Matej Mohorič’s season was impacted by injuries. First, he had to withdraw from Paris-Roubaix following a bad fall at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, bringing to a premature conclusion a good Classics campaign that saw him enter the top 10 at Strade Bianche and Milano-Sanremo. The Slovenian came back in June and won his first ITT National Championship title, before riding the Tour de France, where he was not able to play his cards in breakaways. At the end of the season, another injury following a crash during training prevented him from taking the start of the Worlds Championships and complicated his preparation for the Gravel World Championships, where he could not defend his title and only finished seventh.
At 30 years old, Matej Mohorič is now entering his final year of contract with Bahrain-Victorious and should be a man to watch next season. Indeed, he will have the aim of proving that he is still among the best in the world, if he manages to avoid crashes, and he will be a very good asset for his team, especially at the Classics. Alongside him, riders such as Fred Wright and Nikias Arndt should also be visible during the Spring with maybe the young Vlad Van Mechelen as a revelation for the Bahreini team.
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