Bahrain Victorious secured two top-10 finishes in the general classification, with Jack Haig riding to 7th and Gino Mäder moving up into 10th over the last two thrilling Paris-Nice stages.

The eight-stage race consisted of three opportunities for the sprinters where Phil Bauhaus secured top-10 finishes in all three, with a fourth-place finish on stage 5. 

The team was constantly in the hunt for victories throughout the race, with Dylan Teuns taking two fourth-place finishes while the race highlight was Gino Mäder narrowly missing out on a win on the queen stage.

It was the final stage where the team made significant inroads into the GC with the race turning on its head as race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), who dominated the race, had two unfortunate crashes, which saw the GC slip away from him. The team worked together with Haig, Teuns and Mäder at the front in the final km of the race and were able to push on and take time away from other contenders in the GC. The hard work paid off on the final day saw Haig move up from 9th to 7th and Mäder to move into the top 10 in the GC, while Teuns took 4th on the final stage.

Sports Director Neil Stephens was pleased with the overall team performance at on the final stage and overall at Paris-Nice: “Obviously we wanted to finish off on a high note with a couple of different options. We had Dylan with attacks and breakaway moves and we wanted to give Marco Haller a go if It was a bigger bunch, that wasn’t to be as it was a really aggressive ride right from the start of the day. We had the unfortunate position that Jack Haig was feeling unwell over the last two stages, he really suffered today and was able to hang on. At the end of the day we gave the stage a crack with Dylan finishing fourth. We are also happy to see Jack move up overall into 7th but also with Gino moving up into the top 10 in the GC.

All in all, it’s been quite a successful race having a close call on the queen stage with Gino coming 2nd and being caught with only 20 meters to go, which was obviously a highlight through the race. But everyday, we’ve always tried to pull off the stage win. Also, to have two riders in the top 10 shows the fighting spirit in the team and the unity of the team, which is evident by coming second in the team classification. We are riding together and trying our best all together and it’s that spirit that will bring us success in the future.”

Our team at Tirreno-Adriatico keeps on fighting for the overall with Mikel Landa. The Spaniard took a strong top ten result in stage 5 (Castellalto > Castelfidardo, 205km), the “Stage of the Walls”, so-called after the short and steep climbs featured in the final 23km circuit to repeat four times.

Thanks to the strong performance, Landa moves up to third place overall: “It was super hard, not only for the final circuit but also due to the rain and cold weather, that played a key role in this stage. In the end, I think my result is good. I gained some time from the other contenders, so I’m happy. With two stages to go, including a conclusive time-trial, tomorrow I have to defend my position and I hope it will be a more relaxing day than these past few days, arriving without any risk on the TT day. I’m confident ahead of the final day”. 

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