First win for Bauhaus in red, blue and gold

About two weeks after his 25th birthday Phil Bauhaus got to celebrate his first win of the season and his first win for the BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM at the City Race in Mestre that served as the opener of the stage race Adriatica Ionica Race.

While seven rider of the BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM are still riding the Tour de France, a decidedly international selection of riders lined up to the Adriatica Ionica Race that is being contested between Venice and Trieste. Mark Padun and Domen Novak are the two riders with ambitions for the overall standings. As for the sprints, Phil Bauhaus is the team’s protected rider who could rely on the assistance of Marcel Sieberg and Heinrich Haussler as his lead-out men. Completing the team as all-round support riders are Japan’s Yukiya Arashiro and Taiwan’s Chun-kai Feng.

Apart from a mountaintop finish in the Dolomites an a hilly stage, the Adriatica Ionica Race features the opening city race and two flat stages, one of those with a series of unpaved sectors. The city race in Mestre was held in the evening hours and its circuit favoured fast sprinters, but Phil Bauhaus was facing some strong competitors. So far a 2nd place in the penultimate stage of the Volta a Catalunya had been his best result of the season, but this time Marcel Sieberg and Heinrich Haussler piloted him into the sprint perfectly, and this Bauhaus rushed to the win aboard his MERIDA REACTO, beating Alvaro Hodeg and Sep Vanmarcke.

„The first victory for a new team is always something special, and it took me a while to get that first win today. But I’ve always believed in myself“, Phil Bauhaus commented on his win. „Today the sprint train worked out perfectly, and Marcel Sieberg and Heinrich Haussler in particular did everything they could to get me into the best possible position throughout the final laps and the last corner in particular. From there I only had to finish things off.“

ADRIATICA IONIA RACE, STAGE 1: CITY RACE MESTRE (81KM)
1. Phil Bauhaus, GER/BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM    
2. Alvaro Hodeg, COL
3. Sep Vanmarcke, BEL