Bahrain Victorious pro bike: Jack Haig’s Merida Reacto

The team and their bikes are sporting a new look for 2024 having swapped their customary red colours for white

01:34, Tuesday 30th January 2024

Tom Hallam-Gravells

Online Production Editor

The Merida Reacto has a new look for 2024

Bahrain Victorious
- Nationality Bahrain
- Founded 2018
- Team Principal Milan Eržen
- UCI Code TBV
- Bike Sponsor Merida
Jack Haig
- Team Bahrain Victorious
- Nationality Australia
- Age 30
- UCI Wins 2
- Height 1.9m
Merida
Merida is a bike manufacturer based in Changhua, Taiwan. The company specialises in road and mountain bike bikes as well as a range of electric bikes. Merida’s original purpose was to improve the perception of Taiwanese-built bicycles.
Shimano
Shimano is a bike component manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan. The company is one of the industry’s most popular manufacturers and it makes up around three-quarters of the bicycle component market by value.
Vision
Vision is a cycling component company owned by Taiwanese cycling manufacturer Full Speed Ahead (FSA). Vision produces a range of high-end cycling and triathlon products with a strong focus on aerodynamic gains.

The first few months of a road season can be a confusing time for fans as they grapple with the multiple new kits and bikes on show in the pro peloton. Some teams make life a little easier by only making subtle changes, but others undergo complete makeovers, like Bahrain Victorious.

Since their inception in 2017, the team have traditionally stuck to a red colourway but they have torn up that script for 2024 by switching to white. While at the Tour Down Under, we took a closer look at the new design of Jack Haig's Merida bike and the set-up he used for the race.

Read more: Tour Down Under bikes: New colourways and components

Red out, white pearl in

Bahrain Victorious’ new look isn’t actually new. A similar design, named ‘pearl white’, debuted at the Tour de France as a one-off, or so we thought. Now it’s back for good, giving the team an entirely new look for 2024.

That new look extends to the bikes which now sport a simplistic design. It won’t be to everyone’s liking, especially those who prefer an in-your-face type look (check out EF Education-EasyPost’s bike here if that’s your thing), but we think the subtle design hits the right note.

The new design versus the 2023 design

Most of it consists of white which stretches across the seat and down tube before it’s dissected by shades of pale blue and gold on the top tube and fork. It won’t shout ‘look at me’ when jostling with the designs of other bikes in the pro peloton, but up close the design looks great.

A closer look at the top tube

While the design may be new, the bikes it adorns are very familiar. That’s either the lightweight Scultura or, in the case of Jack Haig at the Tour Down Under, the Reacto. It’s a bike that’s familiar for multiple reasons. For a start, it’s been around since 2011 when the first model was released. Both the Reacto and Scultura have also been piloted by Bahrain Victorious since the team's inception in 2017, when Merida immediately hopped aboard as bike sponsors. That partnership is still going strong.

Read more: Tour Down Under tech gallery: WorldTour equipment and accessory changes 2024

Shimano groupset

It proved to be a solid but unspectacular start to the season for Haig at the Tour Down Under where he registered a tenth-place finish overall, despite failing to finish inside the top 10 on any stage. The Australian kicked things off by finishing 28th on the opening day and we caught a glimpse of his bike ahead of the stage.

Shimano provides groupsets for 14 of the 18 WorldTour teams

With just under 2000 metres of climbing, it was far from a straightforward day, but it also wasn’t too taxing either, as displayed by the sprint finish. To tackle the parcours, Haig opted for a 54/40t chainset paired with an 11-30t cassette as a part of the Shimano Dura-Ace groupset.

Haig opted for a more compact cassette

The former is a common choice but the latter has become rarer over recent seasons, having been bumped in the popularity stakes by the wider range of an 11-34t. This would previously mean a bigger jump between gears but the emergence of 12-speed groupsets has somewhat negated this issue, hence why the wider cassette size has become so popular.

Read more: 2024 Men's WorldTour bikes: A guide to the bikes, groupsets, and tech of the top-tier teams

Vision grows in the WorldTour peloton

Vision is currently enjoying a popularity boom in the WorldTour peloton. It has become a wheel sponsor for two extra teams in 2024 in the form of Astana Qazaqstan and Arkéa-B&B Hotels, which have added to its existing partnerships with EF Education-EasyPost and Bahrain Victorious.

All of these teams will use the Vision Metron range of wheels in 2024 which in Haig’s case was the 40 SL tubular option. That stood out from the crowd as few riders now run tubulars tyres amid the tubeless takeover. The tyres in question were the Continental Competition Pro LTD ALX in another trend-busting 25mm width - the rise in tubeless tech has largely led to riders using 28mm widths.

Vision Metron tubular wheels

There was another Vision component in the form of a Metron integrated bar and stem, which ensured the front of the bike had a suitably sleek appearance for an aero road machine.

At the rear of the bike, where one of the most important decisions on a bike has to be made for the sake of rear-end comfort, Haig opted for the Pro Stealth Performance saddle.