Bianchi has been supplying the French team with equipment since 2023. Most recently, the pros around top rider Kévin Vauquelin (France), who will start for Ineos Grenadiers next season, mainly used the aerodynamically optimised Oltre RC. The lightweight Specialissima RC and the Aquila RC as a time trial machine complete the fleet. Bianchi cites Vauquelin's seventh place overall at the Tour de France 2025 and his stage win at the Tour of France a year earlier as highlights of the joint partnership.
"The journey we have undertaken together has been characterised by close collaboration, both on a technical and human level," Bianchi Managing Director Alberto Cavaggioni is quoted as saying in the press release. It goes on to say that leaving Arkéa-B&B-Hotels as a supplier offers the opportunity to "reorientate ourselves and possibly enter into new partnerships in professional cycling". And according to reports, the Italians have already found a new team in the World Tour.
Buitrago trains on a Bianchi
A video has been circulating on social media showing climbing specialist Santiago Buitrago (Colombia) from the Bahrain Victorious team on a Bianchi racing bike. Rumours had already been circulating that the World Tour team would no longer be using equipment from previous sponsor Merida for the coming season. The Taiwanese manufacturer made a name for itself at the Tour de France in the summer by providing the team with a previously unreleased prototype.
Bianchi, meanwhile, can look back on a long (successful) history in the professional peloton. The connection between the traditional forge and Fausto Coppi, who won numerous victories on bikes from Treviglio in the 1940s and 1950s, is particularly legendary. In the recent past, Bianchi was a partner of the Jumbo-Visma team, which now operates as Team Visma | Lease a Bike. German cycling legend Jan Ullrich also once rode for Team Bianchi on Italian equipment.
Julian Schultz
Editor
