The Gulf country of Bahrain has moved a step closer to launching its own professional cycling team with the announcement that Taiwan's Merida has been signed up as the team’s sponsor and supplier of bikes.
Merida is currently co-sponsor of the Italian team Lampre-Merida, one of 18 'world tour' teams which compete at the highest level of the sport in races such as the Tour de France. It’s best-placed rider in this year's Tour was the South African Louis Meintjes, who finished eighth overall.
The leading figure behind the new Bahrain team is Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, a son of the country’s king, president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee and a keen amateur sportsman. He revealed that he was planning to launch a professional team via a posting on Instagram earlier this year.
Sheikh Nasser is a controversial figure in the world of sport, having been linked to allegations of the torture of athletes and other protesters during the country’s pro-democracy protests in 2011, by groups such as the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. In 2014 a London court quashed an order that had given him diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Since then human rights groups in the UK have demanded that he be arrested and charged when visiting London. The government of Bahrain has consistently denied the allegations.
Bahrain is planning to use the cycling team as part of its marketing efforts to promote the country as a business and tourism destination. On its slickly-produced website, the Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team says it “aims to showcase the Kingdom of Bahrain on this global stage.” To achieve that, the team will need to sign up some big-name riders and there has been plenty of speculation that Vincenzo Nibali, the Italian rider who has won all three grand tours (the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espaňa) will soon be unveiled as the team leader.
Whether the negative publicity that Sheikh Nasser often garners, not least in the specialist cycling press, will undermine the marketing plans remain to be seen. The country has held a Formula 1 Grand Prix race since 2004 with a similar aim of promoting the country. The 2011 race was cancelled due to the political protests, but races since then have gone ahead, albeit against a backdrop of protests at times.
