Britain's Fred Wright has signed a contract with WorldTour team Bahrain-Merida for 2020 and will ride with compatriot Mark Cavendish next season.

The team announced the signing of Wright at the same time as Santiago Buitrago Sanchez, a 20-year-old Colombian climber and fellow neo-pro.

"We are thrilled to have these young riders join the team and be part of our future direction with Rod Ellingworth and McLaren," team operations director Brent Copeland said in a press release. [They will play a key role in shaping the team's future and we look forward to providing the right environment for them to grow," he said.

Wright spent the second half of the 2019 season riding as a stadia rider for the Polish WorldTour affiliated CCC team. He has had success in recent years with British Cycling's track endurance squad, winning the under-23 European Madison title in track with Matt Walls in July, and is a former European junior champion in team Pursuit and Omnium.

On the road, this year the 20-year-old Wright won a stage in the "Baby Giro" (a 10-day Giro Ciclistico d'Italia stage race) and finished 11th in the Tokyo 2020 road race test event the following month.

"I can finally announce that I will be racing for Bahrain-Merida next year," Wright wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

"Very excited about my first two years in the pro peloton. Moving on to the next step."

Meanwhile, Buitrago impressed the team with his climbing skills, finishing sixth overall at the Giro della Valle d'Aosta in July and winning the Trofeo Comune di Lamporecchio one-day race the following month while riding for Team Cinelli.