Pello Bilbao and Bahrain's struggle against cycling's 'super teams': "All the big stars want to be there and offer them much more interesting contracts"

More and more money is being invested in cycling, which is ultimately positive for the sport, but simultaneously creates a large gap between the top teams and the others. Bahrain - Victorious is, safe to say, not at the very top; and Pello Bilbao acknowledges that life is hard amongst rival teams who simply have no means of building the same type of teams.

“I have many unknowns about the calendar, we will see in December during the training camp. But I am not sure about the most important ones. I would like to return to the Giro and give it a chance. It’s a race I miss because in recent years I’ve focused more on the Tour,” Bilbao said in words to Marca. This year the Basque finished third at the UAE Tour, second (with a stage win) at the Tour of Slovenia and second to Tadej Pogacar at the GP de Montréal. A decent year, but one where the only Grand Tour he rode (the Tour) ended prematurely and without meaningful results.

Bilbao focuses on the three-week races next year, but not aiming for the GC. “I’d like to do the Giro, but on the other hand, the Tour is the one that has the most impact and where the team has the obligation to field the best possible lineup. And La Vuelta is the race I’ve neglected the most over the years, but I’d like to test myself there too to achieve the goal of trying to win in all three Grand Tours”.

Winning at the Vuelta a España would see Bilbao achieve something few riders have managed, and may become a very big part of his 2025 season. The team is rather safe from the relegation battle, but it is also very distant from the top teams now: “Bahrain has achieved top-level performances with a more modest budget. And, nowadays, you have to be realistic. It’s difficult to compete against teams that invest a lot of money in cycling like Red Bull, Trek, Ineos, UAE… they compete with a different budget". 

"It’s complicated because practically all the big stars want to be there and offer them much more interesting contracts. In this sense, we’re at a disadvantage. We have been able to play very well in all these years, but it was predictable that we could have a negative year, as happened in 2024". The team signed Lenny Martínez as an interesting incoming leader for the upcoming year, but the balance is very negative taking into consideration the leaders they've lost over the last few year.

"We have lost important people like [Mikel] Landa, [Jonathan] Milan, [Gino] Mäder, [Sonny] Colbrelli…. They were important riders for this team and it is difficult to replace them. Today we are more limited in terms of leaders and we have to play our game. We cannot expect to be among the top five teams. We have to focus more on the objectives of chasing the stages and not so much on the general classifications," he concluded.