Over 700 kilometres of racing from Brixen to Riva del Garda and around 13,000 metres of elevation gain await Team Bahrain Victorious at the Tour of the Alps, the five-day stage race that will take place from April 19th to April 23rd.
Our riders will face five short but demanding stages that will run through the mountainous region Tirol – South Tyrol – Trentino, on Italian and Austrian territories. The Tour of the Alps has been upgraded to UCI Pro Series, attracting high-profile names, who typically use the race as the perfect testing ground ahead of the first Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia.
The profile of long but not very steep climbs suits our team leader Pello Bilbao: “I have a particular motivation every time I come to race in Italy, as I have always taken excellent results there: at the Giro and also at the Tour of the Alps when in 2018 I won the opening stage and wore the leader’s jersey. It’s a race that I like very much. A tough parcour, and although it doesn’t feature high-mountain climbs, it remains challenging, and it suits my characteristic a lot. Besides that, the race will run through fantastic scenery, one of the most beautiful where I’ve raced so far.
I arrive at this race in good shape and feeling confident after what I did at the ‘Basque Country’. I’m sure I can keep on growing, and we know this is a crucial appointment for the preparation ahead of the Giro. Therefore I want to do a good race and try to go for the GC.”
When it comes to describing the parcour, Team Bahrain Victorious Sports Director, Franco Pellizotti, confirmed Bilbao’s words: “This year’s course seems to that it suits our team leader Pello Bilbao even more, with whom we will hunt both stage wins and the general classification. We saw him very active at Itzulia recently. There, his role was supporting the captain Landa. Here at the Tour of the Alps, Pello will have the chance to ride as a unique leader with each of his teammates’ aid. We will have a few riders that are all coming from a good racing week at the Basque Country with Padun, Valls and Arashiro.
Mark was able to impress on these roads three years ago, taking a win, and both he and Pernsteiner can enter a successful breakaway and play their chances if there will be the opportunity.
I’m sure we will have riders that will find extra motivation to be rewarded with a place in the team for the Giro that we are still defining”.
Team Bahrain Victorious lineup for the Tour of the Alps: Yukiya Arashiro, Pello Bilbao, Chun Kai Feng, Mark Padun, Hermann Pernsteiner, Domen Novak, Rafa Valls.
