'We have other promising young riders': Bahrain Victorious issues ultimatum to disappointing Tiberi

Tiberi made his breakthrough with a fifth-place finish in the 2024 Giro d'Italia and seemed poised to become Italy's top contender for general classification titles in the future. But he has not been able to live up to that promise since then. In his four subsequent Grand Tours, a 17th-place finish in the 2025 Giro d’Italia was his best result. Not exactly a standout performance for the team leader of Bahrain Victorious.

However, 2026 got off to a promising start, with a fourth-place finish in the Tour of Valencia and a second-place finish in the UAE Tour, including a stage win in the gruelling third stage.

After that, however, he was largely out of the spotlight, until his second-place finish in the CRO Race well into September. “We had high expectations for Antonio, but he largely went unnoticed in many of his races,” team manager Franco Pellizotti told Lega Ciclicmo Professionistico.

This year, it was decided to skip the Giro d'Italia in favor of the Tour de France. That turned out to be a major blunder, as Tiberi finished 37th in France. “Maybe that wasn’t the best choice on our part: the Giro d’Italia gives an Italian rider more motivation,” his team manager muses aloud. “But in the Tour de France, he should at least have been competing for stage wins—he could have joined the breakaways. Instead, he was always riding as a chaser.”

In recent months, the Italian has regained some form. “However, the Italian races at the end of the season aren’t ideal for him,” says Pellizotti. “Antonio isn’t a sprinter. The Coppa Sabatini and the other races between September and October almost always end with a fairly crowded field in the sprints.” And in the Tour of Lombardy, he was one of the first riders from the early breakaway to drop back, resulting in a DNF.

These aren’t the results you’d expect from a rider who, at age 22, finished just two minutes off the podium at the Giro d’Italia and won the white jersey. That same year, he also won the Tour of Luxembourg by beating Mathieu van der Poel. But now the pressure is on. His contract with Bahrain Victorious expires in 2027.

And so Pellizotti issues him a stern warning. “We want to get the most out of him and are looking forward to it. From now on, however, he can only afford to miss a few more opportunities: we also have other young, promising riders on the team,” the team director emphasizes. “In cycling, you have to be consistent and always fight to stay at the top.”