Factor Bikes is back in the WorldTour after signing a new deal with Bahrain Victorious, with the team ending its agreement with Bianchi.
Factor's ambition has always been "to make the fastest bikes in the world", which for chief brand officer David Millar means it’s essential that its bikes are raced at the highest level.
That hasn’t been the case in the men’s world tour since Factor parted ways with Israel-Premier Tech in 2025, after controversies and the rebrand of the team to NSN Cycling.
However, yesterday's announcement that Bianchi is ending its partnership with Bahrain Victorious at the end of this season has given Factor the opportunity to re-enter the men’s WorldTour.
Factor’s racing department will have both men’s and women’s representation in the Tour, with Human Powered Health and Ma Petite Enterprise on Factor bikes.
Reunited racers
The new partnership will see Millar working once again with Rod Ellingworth, who managed the British team strategy for the 2011 UCI World Championships in Copenhagen, where Millar was road captain. The team secured gold with Mark Cavendish. The duo worked together again in 2012 for the London Olympics.
“This is the first time I’ve been directly involved in the process of working with a men’s WT team in my role at Factor," Millar told BikeRadar.
"We group all our athlete and team support under Factor Racing, and having Bahrain Victorious within that structure is very exciting because it means our bikes will be back road racing at the highest level in the biggest races, which is where they belong.
"Not only that, I’ll get to work with Rod Ellingworth again, which is a huge bonus as I have a lot of respect for him and believe he will be able to support us in R&D athlete feedback like few others can.”
Factor founder and ex-racer Rob Gitelis told us: “Personally, I find it fitting that Factor was born in the UK, and next year, in our tenth anniversary year, Factor will be back at the highest level of racing in the UK at the Tour de France.”
"At Factor, we have always believed that racing at the pinnacle of the sport is fundamental to who we are," Gitelis added. "It's where our ideas are challenged, where our engineering is tested, and where we continue to push ourselves forward. Bahrain Victorious shares our ambition and our belief that performance comes from challenging what is possible.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Milan Eržen, managing director of Bahrain Victorious. “We have found a fantastic partner in Factor, a brand that shares our performance ethos and our ambition to be the best," Eržen said.
"Factor is continuously innovating on the bike, with a huge focus on performance, which will enable our riders to have one of the best setups in the peloton. For us, it was important to find a partner that shares the same drive to continuously improve.
"We believe that by combining Factor’s engineering expertise with the knowledge and feedback of our riders and performance team, we can push the boundaries of performance together and give our riders every opportunity to win at the very highest level.”
Factor’s partnership with Bahrain Victorious starts officially on 1 January 2027, so expect riders Matej Mohorič, Rob Stannard and Oliver Stockwell, among others, to line up at the Tour Down Under aboard Factor’s radical One aero race bikes.
