Vincenzo Nibali unveils his new Merida Scultura race bike for the 2017 season

Vincenzo Nibali has “a new girl” – and it’s fair to say, she’s a bit of a looker. But there’s no need for the Giro d’Italia champion’s wife to worry – the “girl” in question is the Merida Scultura bike he’ll be riding with Bahrain Merida Cycling next season.

Nibali used Twitter recently to share his new bike, as it was being freshly built up ready for a training camp. And there's not a shark graphic in sight. Give it time...

Vi presento la mia nuova a ragazza pic.twitter.com/ga5i3oKZt4

— Vincenzo Nibali (@vincenzonibali) December 12, 2016

Vincenzo Nibali has joined the new Bahrain-Merida for 2017 and it means a switch from his previous Specialized Tarmac race bike to one from Merida’s stable. Naturally, he’s chosen the lightest model in the company’s range, the Scultura. The 2016 Giro d’Italia winner will be hoping the bike provides the necessary performance to help him perform at the highest level.  

It's a bike road.cc has reviewed and been highly impressed with. "The Merida Scultura 6000 just feels right when you get on it. The position, the ride, the comfort… it's one of those bikes that gives you the confidence to push it as hard as you want, knowing that it isn't going to bite back," said Stu Kerton in his review, which you can read here.

The new team has already released pictures of the new race bikes, showing us the Reacto and Scultura road race bikes and the Warp time trial bike. The team is using Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupsets with Fulcrum wheels and will use the new SRM Power carbon fibre cranks with an integrated power meter. The finishing kit will be from Vision, an FSA brand, with handlebars, stems and seatposts. Saddles will come from Prologo.

- Bahrain Merida reveals 2017 race bikes

More 2017 WorldTour race bikes soon as we will wrap them all up on one big feature.