Bahrain - Victorious enters Vuelta a Espana with ambition to land on the final podium with Antonio Tiberi

After a rather anonymous Tour de France, Bahrain - Victorious hopes to provide all the good reasons for fans to forget about their French misery as their goal for Vuelta a Espana is no less than GC podium with Antonio Tiberi and ideally a couple stage wins on top of that.

Sports Director Neil Stephens is confident in a press release ahead of the Gran Salida: "We are starting out in Lisboa with a time trial. We are hoping to go well there with a couple different riders, especially Antonio. We circle through Portugal in the next two stages before going to Spain for stage 4. From there, we go down to the south of Spain, where we’ll get some hard, gruelling stages and extreme heat."

Bahrain will bet everything on Giro d'Italia White jersey winner Antonio Tiberi at the Spanish Grand Tour: "We will try to aim for the podium with Antonio Tiberi. He was in 5th in the Giro, and we are hoping for a little better at the Vuelta and get him into the top three," declares Stephens.

Rather surprising is the nomination of the experienced Damiano Caruso who was one of the main victims of the mass Vuelta a Burgos stage 2 crash. However Stephens asssures there's nothing bothering him anymore. "Damiano Caruso had a quite serious injury last week at the Vuelta a Burgos. He seems to have recovered pretty well with the assistance from our medical team. He’s very important for us, not only for his physical talent, but also as a mentor and our road captain. The guys really look up to Damiano and respect him," he highlights Caruso's importance for the team.

Supporting Tiberi's GC ambition in the mountains will be 2021 Vuelta podium finisher Jack Haig, Tour de Suisse stage winner Torstein Traeen and Austrian Rainer Kepplinger. Stephens highlights that while GC podium is number one priority, the team is to be expected to throw themselves in the mix for breakaway victories. For easier stages, most of the work will be on the shoulders of experienced duo Jasha Sütterlin and Kamil Gradek. Completing the roster is the only Grand Tour debutant in this lineup - Fran Miholjević.

Bahrain - Victorious lineup for Vuelta a Espana 2024:

Damiano Caruso
Kamil Gradek
Jack Haig
Rainer Kepplinger
Fran Miholjević
Jasha Sütterlin
Antonio Tiberi
Torstein Traeen