Merida ready for challenge in France

Manama : Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team are ready for the 63rd Dunkerque 2017 cycling race in France along with 15 other teams over six stages starting today and concluding on May 14.

Team leader for this tour will be Niccolò Bonifazio and he will try to repeat his good performance from Oman Tour and Abu Dhabi. Other riders in the lineup are Borut Božič, Feng Chun-Kai, Heinrich Haussler, Insausti Heinrich, Ion Insausti, Domen Novak, David Per and Meiyin Wang.

This will be the first race this year for injured Heinrich Haussler who will wear the Bahrain Merida jersey for the first time. ”To be racing again feels like Christmas, Easter, Fathers day and my birthday all in one. A lot of hard work has been done and I am ready to race. I am very confident and excited to get out there on the road with the team,” said an excited Heinrich.

Bonifazio said before the race: ”I have good feeling, I trained a lot before that race at home. I hope it will be a good week and is that there will be some good chances `for me.”

Philippe Mauduit added: “We will go to this race with a young team and two very experienced riders, Borut Božič and Heinrich Haussler. For both of them it will be a comeback: for Borut after the strong start of the season and for Haussler after the injury. We will try everything to win a stage and try something for GC, even though we don’t have a GC rider. On this race there is no Time Trial Stage, so the race will be pretty open every day. The main problems will be the cross wind and the cobblestones on the first stage and also the fifth stage – a hilly stage which will most probably make a difference for general classification. We have a nice mix between young and two experienced riders and we hope for the best.”