Bahrain - Victorious confirms line up for Tour Down Under including Phil Bauhaus and Nikias Arndt

The 2025 World Tour calendar is about to start and the peloton is preparing to face the scorching heat typical of the Australian summer. Another edition of the Tour Down Under kicks off on January 21. Bahrain - Victorious will be in Adelaide with the aim of winning stages and will be bringing their main sprinter to lead the team: Phil Bauhaus.

The German cyclist, who has only won one stage in Tirreno-Adriatico and another in the Tour of Slovenia in 2024, will be closely supported by his compatriot Nikias Arndt who should be his main spearhead and will certainly have the second stage of the race well marked after winning in Tanunda in 2023 and finishing second in 2024.

Bahrain will also debut four reinforcements to the team, including Portuguese rider Afonso Eulálio, who, in a team full of sprinters and support men for the flatter terrain, should have his own space in the decisive stages of the race. This race will mark the Portuguese rider's debut at World Tour level after being signed by ABTF - Betão Feirense in a season in which he stood out for his fantastic performance in the Tour of Portugal, where he wore the yellow jersey for six days and showed signs that he could well have won the race if his team had managed to control the peloton better. In the Tour Down Under he shouldn't have to worry about that because other teams will certainly take the initiative to control the race. In addition to Eulálio, three other riders will be making their Bahrain debuts: Mathijs Paasschens, who comes from Lotto, is a rider who has already taken part in the main spring classics as well as the Tour of Guangxi, so the World Tour is not exactly unfamiliar to him, even though he comes from a Pro Team; Daniel Skerl and Roman Ermakov will be making their Bahrain debuts after being promoted from their development team.

In addition to these four reinforcements, we have a fifth cyclist completing the line-up who joined the team in the middle of the 2024 season but has already completed a few races for Bahrain. It's Australian rider Robert Stannard, who was part of the Alpecin - Deceuninck team but terminated his contract following a doping case detected in 2018.

Bahrain - Victorious will certainly be hoping the Tour Down Under is the beginning of a better year for the team in 2025, after a challenging 2024 season.

Nikias Arndt

Phil Bauhaus

Roman Ermakov

Afonso Eulálio

Mathijs Paasschens

Daniel Skerl

Robert Stannard