Changes at Bahrain Victorious's spring villa, as Mohoric's dreams are also on the mind of the team management

After a disappointing 2024 season, Bahrain Victorious has kicked off 2025 on a strong note. The Middle Eastern team saw Santiago Buitrago dominate the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, while Rainer Kepplinger stepped up impressively in the AlUla Tour. That bodes well for the classics, where the team is looking to make amends after an underwhelming year. To guide them through the spring campaign, Aart Vierhouten joined from Q36.5, and IDLProCycling.com spoke with him.

Bahrain Victorious underwent a significant transformation during the 2024–2025 transfer window. The team lost experienced riders like Wout Poels, Lukasz Wisniowski, and Jasha Sütterlin, replacing them mainly with young talents. As a result, expectations for the newcomers remain uncertain in their first professional year.

To maintain classics experience within the squad, the team turned to its existing riders. Matej Mohoric and Fred Wright remain key figures. "But we have also assigned a different role to Nikias Arndt, in consultation with him. He will now be part of our classics squad, as will Robert Stannard. That already gives us four riders who can handle tough races. We’ll also use Andrea Pasqualon, but we’ll ensure he gets enough recovery time in between races," explains Vierhouten.

"We have 12 riders for the classics, and we’ll mix and match our lineups," says the Dutch sports director, who was instrumental in Tadej Pogacar’s breakthrough spring campaign in 2022. "We have a fantastic team villa for the classics, located somewhere between Waregem and Kortrijk. It allows us to stay together as a family and create a relaxed atmosphere. And that brings peace of mind."

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Mohoric’s dreams are also on sporting director Vierhouten’s mind

"The selection for the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix takes shape naturally. It just happens—those who are in form will rise to the occasion," says Aart Vierhouten, embracing a positive outlook on his project with Bahrain Victorious. "It’s also up to us to mix the younger generation with the more experienced riders."

"For example, we have Zak Erzen, a 19-year-old talent. These are exciting surprises, especially when you see how eager he is. But we also know that racing in Belgium is tougher than what they’ve experienced so far—and their teammates warn them too: ‘Just wait until you get there.’ We approach it with confidence, and we’ll enter races like Nokere Koerse and Le Samyn with a young squad, purely to gain experience for the bigger races ahead."

Still, Bahrain Victorious will also be hoping for strong results, especially after Matej Mohoric saw a chunk of his classics campaign last year ruined by a nasty crash. So how does Vierhouten describe working with his team leader? "He knows everything, so you have to be well-prepared. That’s a real challenge," Vierhouten says with great respect for the Slovenian. "We’ve already had several discussions about his ambitions, and now his dreams are in my head too. We’re working hard on them, and we need to keep them alive—that’s why we stay in close contact."

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Teammates Bahrain Victorious would do just about anything for Mohoric

Matej Mohoric has made his ambitions clear multiple times—he wants to win the Tour of Flanders and/or Paris-Roubaix. Aart Vierhouten fully acknowledges this but remains realistic: “But we also have a Mathieu van der Poel, a Tadej Pogacar, and Wout van Aert is still dreaming as well,” the sporting director says with a smile. “So we’ll need to be smart because we know our position in the field. The strength of our team as a unit will be key.”

Having a leader who elevates his teammates makes a huge difference. “Matej is an anchor for everyone, and the team rallies around him. They see that there are opportunities. They train with him and witness firsthand how hard he works. That motivates everyone else as well. When there’s a gap to close, everyone knows exactly who they’re doing it for—someone who has already won a Monument, like he did with Milan-San Remo.”

Bahrain Victorious underwent a reset this winter, and in a way, Mohoric did too. “Last year, he struggled with injuries after a crash. He tried to come back too soon, and in the end, it turned out more was broken than he initially thought. That set him back even further. When you want to win so badly, you sometimes make the same mistakes that every top athlete makes. That’s why he didn’t perform at his best last season.” To help him mentally reset, the team encouraged Mohoric to step away from road racing at the end of the season. “We told him to go gravel racing, do different things. Just to clear his head—because that’s crucial as we head into the spring classics.”

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