Wednesday, December 9, 2020 – Team Bahrain McLaren is delighted to announce the signing of two promising youngsters, Gino Mäder and Jonathan Milan, for the upcoming 2021 season.
Gino Mäder is a 23-year-old Swiss rider who has been a professional since 2019, spending the past two seasons racing and gaining experience in the WorldTour circuit.
His talent came to prominence thanks to brilliant results he took at Under 23 cycling, finishing 4th in the 2018 Innsbruck World Championships and stage wins at Tour de l’Avenir, Tour of Hainan, Ronde de l’Isard, and Tour d’Alsace. Mäder is a versatile rider with strong climbing skills but also time-trial skills, demonstrated by becoming the Swiss ITT Junior National Champion in 2015.
He closed the 2020 season riding his first Grand Tour ‘La Vuelta a Espana’, finishing 2nd atop Alto de la Covatilla, after a demanding mountain stage, and in the top twenty overall.
Gino Mäder commented: “I’m more than grateful to join the team. I’m happy to be here and have teammates who are some of the best riders in the world, like Poels, Landa, Bilbao, and to have the chance to learn from such strong GC riders is something I’m looking forward to. I’m glad to take a closer look at how they work and find out the secrets behind them.
It will be a new further experience for me in the WorldTour. I didn’t have a great start to my professional career, but now I have more confidence in myself. I ended the season by putting on some good performances, which motivated me to start this new venture with the team. I will look forward to proposing the best of me and to seeing if I can bring some more value to the team”.
The 20-year-old Jonathan Milan, nicknamed ‘the giant of Buja,’ from his hometown which conveys his size, power and strength, came through the Continental rank to turn professional and will make his WorldTour debut with the team in 2021.
This season, he impressed with a clutch of results that proved his vast talent as track and road cyclist: taking the bronze medal in the team pursuit at the Track World Championships, and 4th in the individual pursuit. More recently, he took two silver medals in the Team and Individual pursuit and a bronze medal in the 1KM TT at the 2020 UEC Elite Track European Championships. In 2020 he also took the Italian National time trial Under 23 title a week after becoming Italian Individual Pursuit Champion and claimed a stage win at Giro Ciclistico d’Italia U23.
On signing his first professional contract, Jonathan Milan said: “Becoming a professional cyclist is a dream come true. Honestly, I didn’t think it would be so soon! I’m grateful to the management for trusting me and allowing me to take this big next step in my career.
I’m glad I chose this team. I believe I took the right decision because the support I will have to continue the track cycling racing program was one of the main reasons I decided to join. The team set some main goals also for the track races. It meant so much to me. In 2021 my first aim will be the Track European Championship and then the biggest one, the Olympics. But first of all, I’m looking forward to starting training and meeting my new teammates at the first training camp”.
