Sonny Colbrelli set to switch to Bahrain Victorious director role

Former pro rider Sonny Colbrelli is set to take the step into the directeur sportif role with Bahrain Victorious next season.

The Italian was forced to retire from racing early in the 2022 season after collapsing with an unstable cardiac arrhythmia at the Volta a Catalunya. His exit from the peloton was confirmed later in the year as he took up an ambassador role with his team.

He was set to stay in the role until 2024, with team manager Milan Eržen saying he could "share his experience" with the team from a backroom.

However, the 33-year-old will move into a director role for the new season, the Slovenian boss told GCN.

"At the moment no one is coming in, but Sonny is going to do the UCI course later this month," Eržen said. "So, he will be more and more involved, especially in the Belgian Classics.

"So, we'll have about seven or eight sports directors. This year Sonny was an ambassador for the team, but we already had him at races because he has huge experience when it comes to Belgium and races like Paris-Roubaix.

"Next year he will have more involvement. He's a legend. The young guys could see him on TV and now they get to work with him at the race. That's a huge motivation for the young riders."

Former Paris-Roubaix winner Colbrelli will join a host of other ex-pros in the director role for Bahrain Victorious, including Franco Pellizotti, Roman Kreuziger, Michał Gołas, Xavier Florencio, Gorazd Stangelj, and Neil Stephens.

He and the rest of the team's backroom staff will be working with the team's now-full roster of 28 riders, with Eržen confirming that there are no further incoming names for 2024.

"Now our focus is on young guys for the future, and we try to win with these guys," he said. "I don't think investing in older guys is the right way. We have 28 riders for next year and we don't run a third programme.

"We'll do the WorldTour and some preparation races, and that's it. Jumbo and UAE, these teams are running full third programmes to see who is the best in the world at the end of the year but we focus on the WorldTour."

For the new season, the team will welcome neo pros Finlay Pickering and Alberto Bruttomesso as well as Uno-X rider Torstein Træen. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) head up the outgoing list alongside Filip Maciejuk, who switches to Bora-Hansgrohe.