Finlay Pickering’s Merida Scultura: Bahrain Victorious pro bike

The 2024 season is fast approaching and, like most seasons, it’ll begin with a short period of acclimatisation for fans as they get used to the new kits and bikes in the peloton.

There are also all of the transfers to get used to, as well as the new names of riders fresh off the youth conveyor belt. Finlay Pickering will be one of those young stars making his WorldTour bow in 2024, having swapped the colours of Trinity Racing for the newly white ensemble of Bahrain Victorious, and his Specialized bikes for Merida.

We caught a close-up glimpse of the Merida Scultura climbing bike the young Brit will use for some of the races in his debut season at WorldTour level.

• Read more: Pro cycling kits: What the WorldTour teams are wearing in 2024

Bahrain Victorious switch to white

At this point virtually every team changes their kit ahead of a new season, which is usually accompanied by a big reveal video. The changes are often only subtle and in some cases barely noticeable, but in Bahrain Victorious’ case for the 2024 season, it’s a complete revamp. Gone are the old red and orange colours for a white ensemble, something that has also passed over to the team’s 2024 bike.

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The design blends shades of white, blue and gold

The white shades that adorn the bike aren’t completely new, having been used by the team for their special-edition kit at the 2023 Tour de France. That ‘pearl white’ colourway was inspired by the pearl fisherman in Bahrain and the team has adopted an identical colour once again.

It’s not in-your-face and, if we’re being totally honest, it’s not going to jump out at you from the depths of the peloton, but it doesn’t need to. The subtle design is joined by tinges of pale blue and gold on the top tube and, overall, we’re big fans.

• Read more: Bahrain Victorious swap red for white for 2024 team kit

A dedicated climbing bike in the age of the superbike

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Like many modern bikes, the Scultura has dropped seatstays

Dedicated climbing bikes are becoming rarer, shipped to the scrapheap by many brands in favour of one do-it-all superbike. There was a kickback against this trend in 2023 by certain brands like Orbea, but the WorldTour peloton is slowly being taken over by these do-it-all machines.

Merida is another of those brands which has shunned the one bike route so far, splitting its road offering into the dedicated aero Reacto and the lightweight Scultura.

• Read more: A closer look at Bahrain Victorious' 2024 pro bike: Matej Mohorič’s Merida Reacto

While the Reacto bears the typical aero hallmarks with deep tube profiles, Pickerings’ Scultura is a traditional climbing bike, given away by the slacker geometry and thinner tubes. It still has some modern tweaks, like the dropped seatstays and complete aero integration.

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There were no cables in sight on the bike

The bike was released in 2021 so, taking into account modern release cycles, the latest evolution shouldn’t be too many years into the future.

Shimano, Vision and Prologo components

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Bahrain Victorious use Shimano Dura-Ace groupsets

Like the majority of teams at WorldTour level - 14 of the 18 by our count - Bahrain Victorious uses Shimano groupsets. In the case of Pickerings’ Scultura, this was a 54/40 Dura-Ace chainset. That’s on the larger size for an amateur bike but is a popular choice for the pros.

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

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The Vision 45SL wheels

The Vision Metron 45 SL wheels are on the shallower side, as is to be expected on a climbing bike, at least compared to the 60 SL version we encountered on Matej Mohorič’s Merida Reacto. There were more Vision components at the front of the bike in the form of the Vision Metron integrated bar and stem.

Completing the build, a Prologo Scratch M5 saddle sat atop a FSA K-force seatpost.

Bike Specification