Bahrain-Merida offer Nibali two-year contract extension to ward off Trek-Segafredo

08 January 2019 12:25
Bahrain-Merida have proposed a two-year contract extension to Vincenzo Nibali in a bid to ward off the interest of Trek-Segafredo, who reportedly also met with the Italian rider on Monday. Nibali’s current deal expires at the end of this year, making him a major target for several WorldTour teams.   According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Nibali and his agent Johnny Carera held talks with Trek-Segafredo manager Luca Guercilena and Luca Baraldi of Segafredo at Malpensa airport on Monday morning, before meeting with the Bahrain-Merida management team of Brent Copeland, Alex Carera and Milan Erzen in the afternoon. Nibali seems happy to play out his transfer talks via the media. In October he hinted he would be happy to consider an offer from Team Sky and was irritated that Bahrain-Merida were only willing to offer him a one-year deal. Nibali turned 34 in November but hopes to race until at least 2020 if not longer. ADVERTISEMENT Copeland confirmed that Bahrain-Merida have offered Nibali a new, two-year contract as they fight to keep their team leader. Formal discussions with Nibali had been previously delayed while Bahrain-Merida negotiated with the McLaren Group, who recently became a 50 percent partner in the team. Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat has a majority stake in McLaren, while Bahraini prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa is the owner of the Bahrain-Merida team. "We don’t want to lose Nibali, quite the opposite,” Copeland told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "We have offered him a two-year contract and, in any case, Erzen has always been clear: so long as Vincenzo has the Bahrain jersey, the prince insists that the whole staff will be at his disposal. "This week McLaren will also get involved in the negotiations and before the end of the month, we’ll present our official renewal proposal. I think there’ll be another meeting with Vincenzo on February 21." You can read more at Cyclingnews.com.readfullarticle

Source: Cycling News