Professional since 2005, in the same year he won his first pro race at Tour of Qinghai Lake in China. From 2008 to 2012, he wore the green and white jersey of the Italian team Liquigas and at the Giro d’Italia 2010 wore, for three days, the white jersey for best young rider.

From 2013 he raced for the Kazakh Astana Pro Team always next to his captain and best friend Vincenzo Nibali contributing to the victory of the Giro 2013 and in other many races. During 2016, he wore the leader's jersey in the Giro del Trentino after winning the Team Time Trial and has participated at the edition of Giro d’Italia where he had to abandon due to a bad fall in the last kilometers of the eleventh stage.

Earlier, in February, he had been part of the team that won the Tour of Oman and the last October has made a great contribution in the victory of Abu Dhabi Tour. As one of Nibali's trusted Grand Tour domestiques, Valerio Agnoli joined together with him BAHARAIN MERIDA Pro Cycling Team since the foundation. He showed to be one of the most loyal teammates in the peloton, a classy rider who helped wherever and always delivered what is asked of him.

Fighter as he is, Arashiro has been riding in Europe for more than 10 years, and 2020 Summer Olympics will be his final goal in cycling the sport. Until now, winning himself one stage in Tour de France has always been his target. Arashiro is not only an idol cyclist in Japan, but also the rider respected by all the Asian road cyclists.

During his career, Arashiro had won Asian Road Championships in 2011 and Japanese National Road Race Championships in 2013 and 2007. Most importantly, he is the first Japanese who finished Grand Tours. Despite breaking his femur during a crash at the Tour of Qatar, Arashiro proved himself as a heroic rider by winning the hardest stage in Izu in Tour of Japan 2016 within 3 months’ recovery.

He signed for the BAHARAIN MERIDA Team for the 2017 season, after one year at Lampre-Merida and seven years at Europcar. Arashiro is a great example of a true professional and determined athlete. Above all he is a great team mate who is always willing to help where needed.

The 30 years old Italian professional cyclist is a huge help to BAHRAIN MERIDA as an experienced Grand Tour cyclist, but also as a talented time-trial specialist.
In 2017 he was an essential asset to help achieve theteams goals together with Nibali at the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, bringing top results in the first season of the new team. As it happened before joining our team, when he increased his power and experience as well supporting a captain like Contador during his victorious Giro d’Italia.

Manuele Boaro’s top results date back in the youth categories: in 2015 he won the Italian National Time Trial Junior Championship and the bronze medal at World Championships in the Time Trial. With this background he joined his first professional team in 2010. Since then
he has taken a success in Trofeo Città di Brescia, a stage win in Circuit Cycliste Sarthe and in Tour of Denmark.

In 2016 the best achievement has been the second place at the Italian National Time Trial Championship, awarded with the silver medal. In Time Trial stages of Giro d’Italia, Tour de Romandie and Tour of Denmark Boaro took the other best placements of the season.

Grega Bole is a Slovenian professional rider who joined his first professional team in 2008. His biggest victory is the 2011 GP Ouest-France. In 2015, Bole was the winner of the first stage of the inaugural Tour of Croatia. In 2016 he was 1st at Gran Premio della Costa Etruschi, 1st in Overall Tour de Korea and 3rd Trofeo Laigueglia.

Grega helps the team in many different terrains. His CV speaks for himself so there is not much to explain about him and his huge experience in the peloton. Grega still has a huge of improvement and wants to perform in a highest level in the upcoming season.

His expectations are still a strong support to his team as very skilled rider. He will help teammates and do his best for his personal goals. As it happened in 2017 when he took silver medal at Slovenian National Championships.

Niccolò is one of the major sprinters of the Team. He is a solid athlete with huge talent of which we haven’t yet seen all of what his true capabilities are. He is still young (24) however he has been in the pro peloton for a few years now. He has matured in the last seasons and the aim is to keep to let him the space he deserves in order to give him the opportunity to show his true value. His sprinting is exciting for the fans and his way of racing is something that gives a lot to cycling. In 2017 he brought some enthusiastic results with several podium places and great racing in the BAHRAIN MERIDA Pro Cycling Team jersey.

Niccolò Bonifazio became pro rider in 2014 with Team Lampre, where he stayed for two seasons, after some months as trainee in 2013. As a neo pro he won the Coppa Agostoni, a stage of the Tour of Japan, and three stages at the Tour of Hainan. The following year he did it again in Japan and won the GP Lugano. Among his best results he finished 5th in Milan-Sanremo.

Before becoming a rider of our team, “Bonny” joined TREK Segafredo for the 2016 season. With the new jersey he took the biggest victory of his career so far by winning the third stage of the Tour de Pologne in a sprint finish. Furthermore he took multiple top ten finishes, including 2nd in a stage of Tour de Romandie and of Paris-Nice, 3rd at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and 3rd in a stage of Critérium du Dauphiné.

Borut is a very experienced cyclist who became professional in 2004. A great sprinter who’s career highlights include winning the 2007 Tour de Wallonie, victory in the first stage of the 2009 Tour de Poland, winning the sixth stage of the 2009 Vuelta a España, and 1st in stage five of the 2011 Tour de Suisse.

After many years in the pro cycling Borut Božič accept the new challenge to be part of the new established Team BAHRAIN MERIDA in 2017, of which he already knew many riders.
Borut is was a very important step as he contributed hugely in help building the foundations and the base of the team.

He was an important part of Grand Tours in which he still continue to be an essential asset to help achieve the teams’ goals, with his skills and experiences and he is one of the main riders who helps the leaders in the team. He has an incredible ability to cover many areas and roles as an athlete.
In the final stage of 2017 Tour de France he sprinted to 6th place in Paris and that is his best results with the jersey of our team so far.

Borut also wants to take a part of responsibility in the team to help younger cyclists thanks to all the experience gained throughout the years spent in the pro cycling world.

Sonny Colbrelli joined the WorldTour level with Team BAHRAIN MERIDA in 2017, taking some prestigious results immediately. He won a stage at the Paris-Nice, the Brabantse Pijl and the Coppa Bernocchi. He sprinted to podium places many times and he took amazing top-ten finishes as that at his first ever Tour of Flanders.

Sonny (27 years old) is not only one of the major sprinters and all rounder of the Team, but also as a very classy one day races rider. With BAHRAIN MERIDA he will focus on Classics campaign in 2018 as Milano-Sanremo (13th in 2017) and Tour of Flanders, but he will be a stage hunter in some Grand Tours as well. His enthusiasm and exciting way of racing definitely bring something special to the team.

Sonny Colbrelli turned professional in 2012 and has spent his entire career with the Bardiani Team. In 2014 he had a marvellous season with several victories as Giro dell’Appennino, Memorial Pantani, Gp Prato and Coppa Sabatini. The following year he took a success at Tour de Limousin and Gp Beghelli.

2016 was his best season before joining Team BAHRAIN MERIDA, setting his personal record in a year with seven wins: GP Lugano, 2 stages at Tour du Limousin, 1 stage at Poitou Charantes, Coppa Agostoni, Coppa Sabatini and Tre Valli Varesine. Besides a podium performance at Amstel Gold Race (3rd) and a finishing in the top 10 at Milano-Sanremo as well (twice in his career).

Iván García Cortina (22 years old) is among the youngest athletes of Bahrain Merida team.
He is considered one of the greatest talents of Spanish cycling, as showed his 8th place at the 2017 European Championships and his 7th place at the U23 World Championships in 2016.

Among his best results with our team there are some podium finishes at the Vuelta a Espana (3rd in his home town Gijon and 5th in Madrid) and at the Tour of Japan.

He started riding in his home town Gijon, northern Spain, with the jersey of cycling club Las Mestas getting immediately good results. His was a constant growth that has enabled him in 2012 to win the road national championship in the Junior category. In 2015 he joined the continental team AWT-Greenway in practice the youth team of the World Tour Etixx - Quick Step. Among the major results of that season the10th place in the final classification of the Tour de Bretagne. In 2016, the team took the new name of Klein Constantia while Iván Garcia has become the protagonist of a good season taking victory in the fourth stage of the Course Cycliste de Solidarnosc et des Champions Olympiques. In addition to this success, he got various placings at the international level such as the eighth place in the Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 and tenth in Paris-Roubaix Espoirs. complete and strong runner uphill, for 2017 the goal is to have new experiences in one-day and short stages races.

As the first Taiwanese cyclist to race at WorldTour level, Feng is known to be the best rider in Taiwan in recent years. Not only he won Taiwanese Road Race Championships in 3 consecutive years from 2013 to 2015, he was 4 times polka dot jersey in Tour de Taiwan, which makes him the signature rider for fans in Asian countries.
In 2017 he turned both Road and Time-Trial National Champion.

Climbing on the mountain has always been his passion, even though he is not a pure climber. Other than his hometown, Feng won himself 2 more mountain classification in Tour of Fuzhou and Le Tour de Filipinas in 2012. In his fourtth year in WorldTour, taking part in one of a Grand Tour races will be his dream to pursue in the upcoming season.

Fast sprinter and classic specialist, his first win as a pro was in Spain in 2005, the year of its debut among the professionals. Later that year, he also won the road Italian championship. In 2007, wore the pink jersey at the end of Giro d’Italia’s first stage after the team time trial won by his team Liquigas. From 2010 to 2014, he raced with Astana Pro Team. In his first year with the Kazakh squad wins the fifth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico.

In April 2012 he got his first major international classics winning the Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands. A few days later, he is the protagonist of an excellent performance in Liege-Bastogne-Liege where he won the third place. In 2015 he passes to the Belgian team Wanty-Groupe Gobert, where he ran until joining Team BAHRAIN MERIDA. In April 2016, he won for the second time the Amstel Gold Race after a decisive attack on the Cauberg climb.

The main objective for 2018 is to continue to support the captains and to be competitive in the Northern Europe classics, Belgium and the Netherlands in particular, which races that are well suited to his racing style.

Left behind the dramatic 2017 season - where he counted just 12 days of racing because of a double knee surgery - Heinrich Haussler is ready to take his revenge.

He is really motivated to feel finally well for racing for Team BAHRAIN MERIDA since the beginning of the season. He can do well both in stages and in one-day races, in particular he brings Classics experience to the team set-up. The Australian cyclist of German heritage is 33 years old and even though he has a huge experience in the peloton he can still have a good margin of improvement.

He started his professional career in 2005 shooting immediately to prominence with a stage win at the Vuelta. Then he took five great successes in 2006 and has had strong classics campaigns since then: in 2009 coming 2nd in both the Tour of Flanders and Milano-Sanremo, besides the 7th place in Paris-Roubaix. Haussler's biggest victory was the win of Stage 13 in 2009 Tour de France. In 2015 he won the Australian National Road Race Championships.

In 2016 with IAM Cycling he took excellent results in Classics as the 6th place in Paris-Roubaix and the 7th in Milano-Sanremo. He rode the Giro d’Italia, where he was 8th in a stage. He had other top ten finishes at Tour de Pologne (twice 4th and once 7th).

Izagirre brothers are together again: Gorka joins his younger brother Ion Izagirre in our team in 2018 season. Gorka is 30 years old professional rider from Basque country, Spain. He started his career with team Contentpolis-Ampo in 2009 and transferred the next year to Euskaltel-Euskadi, where his brother Ion soon joined him. In 2014 they both signed with Movistar Team.

Gorka has a remarkable list of professional cycling achievements. He won 1st Stage of Vuelta a Espana in 2014, he was 2nd in Time Trial on National Road Championships in 2015. That same year he was 8th overall on Tour Down Under and 9th overall in Paris-Nice. In 2016 he was 5th overall in Dubai Tour and in 2017 he won the 8th Stage of Giro d’Italia, he won Klasika Primavera and was 4th overall in Paris-Nice.

Gorka is not only one of the worlds best domestiques but also a very solid stage race rider with his two top ten finishes in the Paris Nice and Santos Tour of Down under as well as his great win in a stage during the Giro d’Italia

He represents everything that we look for in a BAHRAIN MERIDA rider, consistency, hard worker with clear ideas of where he wants to go and last but not least a great team rider.

The Basque rider can't wait to return racing after the terrible crashed, that occured to him at the opening stage of the Tour de France, where he fractured a number of vertebrae in his lower back.

Before the acciddent, his debut season with the jersey of Team BAHRAIN MERIDA was a good one, with several podium places: third in Pais Vasco, fifth in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, fifth in Romandie, second on the toughest stage of the Tour de Suisse and third in the Spanish Road Nationals.
Izagirre is looking forward the first victory with our team and even if the most important thing is that he’s back in the peloton, he will aim to take it soon.

Izagirre turned professional in 2010 and he won his first professional race in the spring of 2012. He won the individual time trial at the Vuelta an Asturias in April, before achieving victory during his Grand Tour début at the Giro d'Italia. In 2014 he was a National Road Race Champion and also National Time Trial Champion. It seems that 2014 was the most successful year of Ion’s career, but his ambitions are higher.

He is a complete rider who can win both one day races as classify very well in the general classification of tours thanks to his very good time trailing ability and climbing skills, at the very experienced age of 28 and ridden 8 years in the pro peloton.
Ion is a great time trial and overall cyclist with huge potential.

Kristijan Koren is a 31 years old cyclist from Slovenia who turned professional in 2010 with Liquigas–Doimo. He remained with them for 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons and accomplished some significant results. In 2011 he was 3rd in National Road Championships Time Trial and 6th Overall at Tour of Slovenia. In 2012 he was 3rd overall at Tour of Slovenia and also won 4th Stage in this same race.

In 2014 he was second at Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli, 4th overall at Tour of Slovenia and came in top 10 in some other races that same year. From 2015 he was with Cannondale-Drapac. In 2017 he came 8th on National Road Championship Road race and was also on the start list for the 2017 Giro d’Italia.

He is an exceptionally experienced rider who completes an area of the team roster which we were not able to fulfill during our first racing season and this makes him an even more important asset to the team, Kristijan is one of the hard working domestiques in the peloton who will bring some of his experience to the classics in Belgium as well as many other races which his eight years as a professional has taught him.

Matej Mohorič is a 23 years old cyclist from Slovenia who turned professional in 2014. That year he signed with Cannondale and was 5th on Road race in National Road Championships. He achieved the same result also in 2015 and that year he also came 6th in Japan Cup. In 2016 he signed with Lampre-Merida and he was 2nd in Time Trial in National Road Championships, he won 6th Stage of Tour of Hainan and was 3rd overall on the same race.

In 2017 he joined UAE Team Emirates. In 2017 he took a stage at the Vuelta a Espana and he was winner at the Sun Hung Kai Properties Hong Kong Challenge.
he was 3rd in Road race on National Road Championships this year and 8th on Trofeo Laigueglia.

Although he has already been a pro for 4 seasons, he is still young at the age of 22 with a creative and exciting mind on the bike, putting this together with his enthusiasm it makes a perfect match for our team. He is one of the most intelligent riders in the group and has a vast amount of margin for improvement. He is a rider that is now ready to show the world of cycling what his true capabilities are.

Antonio Nibali, younger brother of Vincenzo, is in his fourth season as a professional. He was born in Messina 25 years ago and started to run on the roads of Sicily. After running in the junior categories, in 2014 Antonio become amateur moved to northern Italy to become part of his new team Marchiol Emisfero.

With the Venetian team has raced all season seizing several placings in national and international races that led, in the 2015, to become a professional rider. In that year, in fact, he was hired by the Italian-Japanese professional team Nippo Vini Fantini and he raced in many worldwide competitions. He’s a complete rider with a strong predisposition for the climb. In 2016, he finished seventh in a stage of the Tour of Japan and finished in eleventh place in the General Classification.

In 2017, he raced for the first time with his brother Vincenzo acquiring more and more race experience.
Antonio is the type of rider that dedicates everything to his job and a true professional at applying himself to hard work.

At his debut season with Team BAHRAIN MERIDA Vincenzo Nibali finished on the podium at both the Giro d’Italia (3rd) and the Vuelta a Espana (2nd). Among his best results there are some victories as well: the General Classification of the Tour of Croatia, the Queen Stage of the Giro in Bormio, stage 3 at the Vuelta, with his memorable Shark fin celebration in Andorra and his second Il Lombardia victory in three years.

The ``Shark`` is one of the few riders in history to have won all three Grand Tours. The nickname was given because he loves always to attack. After running in the junior categories in Sicily, when he was sixteen he moved to Mastromarco in Tuscany. Nibali finished third at the Junior World Time Trial Championship in 2002 and also third at the U-23 World Time Trial Championship in 2004.

He turned professional in 2005 with Fassa Bortolo and the next year he signed with Liquigas winning hi first pro race the French classic GP Ouest-France. In 2010, after the Tour of San Luis victory and the third place at the Giro d’Italia, wears the leader's jersey at the Vuelta a España. In 2012, Nibali won the Tirreno-Adriatico and he’s on the podium of Milano-Sanremo finishing third. With his new Astana Pro Team jersey started 2013 season winning again the Tirreno-Adriatico and the Giro of Trentino. These two successes add his first win of the Giro d’Italia and in september he finished 2nd overall at the Vuelta. The following season, Nibali dominates the Tour de France and arrives in Parsi with his brilliant yellow jersey. The triumph on the Champs-Élysées is one of the most important victories in the career of Italian champion. Before the French race, he won for the first time also the national road championship. In 2015, winning several victories including a stage in the Tour de France and some of the classic Italian races. In June he wins again the national road title but it is in October whe he won His First Monument, Il Lombardia arriving alone at the finish after a wonderful attack. In 2016, after a very exciting final, Vincenzo won his second Giro d'Italia.

Among his victories, even success in the Tour of Oman. He is the leader of Bahrain Merida and in 2018 will aim mainly to focus on the Tour de France and the Ardennes Classics. Main target of the season will be the World Championships in Innsbruck as well.

He is a young Slovenian professional road racing cyclist who won the white jersey at the Tour of Japan with Team BAHRAIN MERIDA in 2017.
He wont the white jersey at the Tour of Croatia 2016 as well and took overall 6th place at the same edition. His 3rd place at Tour of Malopolska gave a definite sign that great results could be expected in the upcoming seasons.

Domen was very excited to join Team BAHRAIN MERIDA with big names from the cycling world. His team-mates are big stars and accepted him generously and Domen feels great to be part of such a big team.

His personal goal is still to help the team as much as he can and to get as much knowledge and experience as possible from his team-mates and the staff.

His talent is not questionable.

The 21-year-old Ukrainian cyclist is a neo-pro, who has been a trainee in our team since August 2017. He was one of the most promising U23 riders from Team Colpack, that is BAHRAIN MERIDA’s development team. Padun did the first race in our jersey in the challenging Coppa Agostoni, where he was in the break for almost 160 km.

In 2017 Mark Padun won the Trofeo Piva, the GP Capodarco and one stage of Giro d’Italia Under 23, where he also took 5th place in the overall classification. Moreover, he took other important results, as the general classification at the Flèche du Sud in Luxembourg. In 2016 he won a stage on Giro Valle Aosta, wore pink jersey for 2 days and was 2nd in the overall classification. He also won TT National Championship. Results that show that he has what it takes to think about his move to the professional category.

Padun is one of the best riders in U23 in the world, specialized in climbing and everybody in the team is excited to have this young talented rider in our jersey.

Pellizotti (age 40) has been in Pro cycling since 2001 so he is an extremely experienced rider. For five years he has been a team mate of Vincenzo Nibali in Liquigas Team. Together they achieved many excellent results and “Pelli” helped him on many Grand Tours and other races. Joining Team BAHRAIN MERIDA Franco showed that they can achieve even greater results riding together again, as now they are both more matured and more experienced. His amazing performance at the Vuelta a Espana and at the Giro as well definitely confirmed so.

Furthermore Pellizotti brought his great enthusiasm for the return to the WorldTour. Franco is a climbing specialist and BAHRAIN MERIDA take advantage of his talent to support the captain towards his goals. Seen his qualities he is one of his men for the climbs.

In his long career Franco Pellizotti won many stages at Grand Tour and other races. He was 3rd overall in the 2009 Giro and in the same season he won the polka dot jersey in Paris as the best climber of Tour de France, as well as named the Most Combative Rider on Stages 9 and 17. In 2012 he became Italian National Champion. Among his recent best results there are a 2nd place on the Zoncolan Queen Stage of 2014 Giro and a3rd place in a stage of 2015 Giro.

In 2016 Pellizotti can’t attend the Giro d’Italia because his Team has not been invited. So he missed a great chance to take results in a stage race where he is specialist. He took some top ten finishes in Tour de Slovenie (overall), in a stage of Volta a Portugal (9th) and in Coppa Sabatini (7th).

He is a Slovenian cyclist and young professional road cyclist who joined professionals 2014.
Two times National Junior Champion and two times National Under-23 Time Trial Champion 2013 and 2015. In season 2016 he won Ronde van Vlaanderen Beloften.

He has a very positive feeling and in his debut season he get along very well with the team. He was motivated and focused. Most important is that David wants to learn a lot in a team where he will for sure get the best out of it from his experienced team-mates.

He will definitely give his best to help the team and to his team-mates.

The experienced mountain biker Hermann Pernsteiner joins our team for the 2018 season.

Age 27 he was born in Austria, in a small village among a picturesque hilly landscape that provided perfect conditions for cycling. Already at the age of 11, Hermann performed on his first MTB race and from there on it only went uphill. His first international success was in 2011 when he took the Silver Medal in the U23 Marathon Race at the European Championship. In 2015 he got his first professional contract as a mountain biker at the German team Centurion Vaude. In the next three years he was gaining experience and evolving as a professional mountain rider. In 2016 and 2017 he won the Bike Transalp stage race and the Trans Schwarzwald. He won some of the classic MTB marathons and celebrated stage victories at big MTB stage races (Alpentour, Brasil Ride, Bike Transalp). He also won Silver Medal at National Austrian MTB Championships in 2015 and 2017.

As a lightweight rider, the mountains became his territory and he developed to one of the best climbers in the MTB scene. In 2016 the Austrian Continental Team, Amplatz BMC, invited him to try road racing at Tour of Slovenia and Tour of Austria. He finished 16th in Slovenia and two weeks later 6th at Tour of Austria, also winning the jersey as the best Austrian rider.

After some successful road races in 2017, he is fully switching from MTB to the road cycling and BAHRAIN MERIDA welcomes him.

He is a young Slovenian professional cyclist who joined pro cycling three years ago. During the past years he gained extensive experience and demonstrated the cycling world that he has huge potential.

Prior to joining a pro team Pibernik had many top ten rankings in Under-23 Road Races.
both in 2013 and 2015 he was a National Champion of Slovenia. Luka made his debut in Tour De France in 2016.

Pibernik expressed that he’s really happy to become a part of the huge project and hopes to satisfy the high expectations of the team soon. He will keep doing his very best to help the team and hopes that his team will achieve the goals they set out for the upcoming season.

Domenico Pozzovivo, age 35, started his professional career in 2005. He became a pure climbing specialist and he is most known for the victory in 8th Stage of the 2012 Giro d’Italia and overall victory in the 2012 Giro del Trentino.

Despite his age, 2017 season was one of the best in his career, with impressive results. He finished 3rd overall at Tour of Alps, 4th at Tour of Swiss, 6th at Giro d’Italia, 6th at Tour de Pologne, 9th at Abu Dhabi Tour and 10th at Tirreno-Adriatico. He proved his excellent physical form at the Vuelta as well. He has many significant results to show in his career but results from last year particularly convinced BAHRAIN MERIDA management to sign him and give him the chance to be one of the leaders in 2018 and 2019 as well as supporting his new team-mates in BAHRAIN MERIDA Team.

Pozzovivo has also a degree in economics and his high education has earned him the nickname “Dr. Pozzovivo” in the peloton.

Such an experienced climber will be a great addition to the team and will surely play an important role in the next two seasons.
He represents everything we look for in a cyclist. He is an extremely dedicated and hard worker and a true professional in all areas as well as a very ambitious rider. On top of this he is a team player that is always willing to work and support others at the same time he is considered to be one of our teams leaders who will be given the opportunity to have his own space in many important races.

The Belarusian Kanstantsin Siutsou is one of the most experienced riders in the peloton. In 2004 he won the Under-23 road world champion in Verona, after having already won several national titles on the road and in time trial. In 2008, he took his first stage race overall victory at the Tour de Georgia, and came 16th overall in the Tour de France.

In the 2009 Giro d’Italia, he won two grand tour stages: the team time trial on stage one and a successful solo breakaway on stages eight. In 2012, he moved to British team Sky and the following year, in addition to winning a stage of the Giro del Trentino, conquered the Time Trial bronze medal in the World Championship in Florence in Italy. In 2015 he moved to the South African Team Dimension Data and, in the last season, he was the national road race and time trial champion and was 10th Overall Giro d'Italia. With his 35 years, Kanstantsin is the mentor to the team's younger riders, but also he has the role of super-domestique in the Grand Tours.

Unfortunately in his debut season with Team BAHRAIN MERIDA he crashed heavily at the Tour de Slovenie, fracturing his left femoral bone and he was forced to miss the Tour de France and the rest of the scheduled races in 2017.

Giovanni Visconti took his first win with Team BAHRAIN MERIDA at the Giro dell’Emilia, ahead of his team-mate Vincenzo Nibali. A great result crowning a good season for the Italian rider, that took several podium and top ten finishes as 2nd place in Peschici at the Giro d’Italia, 2nd in the Queen Stage and 2nd overall at the Tour de Slovenie, 2nd at Giro della Toscana, 4th atop the Green Mountain in Oman, 3rd and 5th in two stages at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco.

At the age of 35 Visconti is also a huge help to the team. During the last seasons with Movistar he rode as a domestique rider for the captains Valverde and Quintana at the Grand Tours. With BAHRAIN MERIDA he performs the same role for his friend and former rival Nibali during the stages races, supporting him on climbs. But Visconti is an important man for Classics too, where he can have a great opportunity to ride for himself.

Giovanni Visconti debuted in professional cycling in 2005 and since then he took great results in particular in stages races. At the Giro d’Italia he won several stages wearing also the pink jersey and many times the blue one. His last major achievement was indeed the mountains classification in 2015 Giro when he won the best climber’s jersey. He has been three time Italian National Champion (2007, 2010 e 2011).

In 2016 he collected some interesting results, topped by two wins in the Klasika Primavera and in Giro della Toscana, where he took a 3rd place as well. At the Giro d’Italia he placed 2nd, 7th and 9th in a mountain stage. Visconti performed well in one-day races too as Amstel Gold Race 8th, Il Lombardia 14th , GP Indurain 4th, Coppa Agostoni 4th, Tre Valli Varesine 5th and GP Larciano 3rd

Winning the mountains classification in le Tour de Langkawi 2016, Wang is known as the best road cyclist in China. Before his first year in Bahrain-Merida, Wang was the stage winner in Tour of China I 2015 and le Tour de Langkawi 2013. In his first ever season in WorldTour, he tried his best to honor the team and all the Chinese people, that were crazy for him as the only Chinese rider at the first Tour of Guangxi, where the team closed the inaugural season.

Born Shandong, China, Wang has been riding for Hengxiang Cycling Team since 2010 as a GC rider. With his experience in cycling the sport, the neo professional will bring his enthusiasm to the peloton, and share his passion with 1.3 billion people in his hometown.