The Ineos Grenadiers finished the 2023 season as the third-best team in the world behind Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates but does the result belie the team's trajectory? Former rider Ian Boswell suggested to The Cycling Podcast that Ineos have lost direction, calling their lack of Grand Tour, Classics or sprint prospects "worrisome".
Earlier this month the team lost its Deputy Team Principal/General Manager Rod Ellingworth, along with sports director Roger Hammond and assistant director Matteo Tosatto, dealing a major blow to the British team that former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas called "gutting".
Ellingworth was one of the architects of the former Team Sky outfit's success, having acted as performance manager for Tour de France champions Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, but left the team after the 2019 season for Bahrain Victorious. He rejoined Ineos for 2021, the year of the team's last Grand Tour victory with Egan Bernal at the Giro d'Italia, taking over from long-time manager David Brailsford, who became Director of Sports for the larger Ineos sports organisation.
In last week's episode, Boswell, who raced for Team Sky from 2013-2017, suggested that Ellingworth may have not been given full autonomy in making decisions about the team.
"Rod was at Team Sky in the absolute heyday ... they were winning every race, Tour after Tour, they showed up with the best team and they came away with success. How difficult is that now for Rod to have been in that environment, to know what that success looks like, and to now be in a position to make those decisions to continue on that legacy but not be able to," Boswell said.
"If people above him are making choices that he doesn't agree with, whether it's signing riders [or] selecting teams; if he's been maybe overshadowed by Brailsford, who's not there on a day-to-day operation, but yet still making decisions; or whether it's [Ineos owner Jim] Radcliffe or other people within the organisation.
"I can see how that can be frustrating because he knows what that team was like. He knows what the culture and the environment were like when the team was successful, and he knows how to rebuild that. But he's maybe not given the keys to actually do what he wants to do."
Ineos Grenadiers have indeed had a significant talent drain in recent years - former Grand Tour winners Adam Yates, Richard Carapaz and Tao Geoghegan Hart left for other teams, leaving Ineos with Geraint Thomas as their sole GC prospect after Egan Bernal's life-threatening injuries in 2022.
Boswell agreed that the team lacked a leadership figure who could rally the riders and provide purpose, saying when he was with the team, "They had this really strong identity of who they were and what they wanted to do. A lot of those goals over the last 12-13 years now have been ticked off, those have been accomplished."
He said now the team have held onto the identity of being a Grand Tour team without a real prospect for beating riders like Jonas Vingegaard or Tadej Pogačar, and have not established alternative goals in the Classics or Grand Tour sprints.
"I feel like they're the last person in the room, the music stops and they don't have a chair to sit on."
Although 22-year-old Carlos Rodríguez showed promise at the Tour this year, finishing fifth, Boswell didn't see him as a 'marquee rider'.
"To see a team with such organisation and also such a big budget with the opportunity and the ability to sign riders who could be the marquee rider on a team and to have not made those selections in the last couple of years when riders have been available ... and having not made that decision. It's a little bit worrisome."
The lack of direction could be costing Ineos when it comes to signing new riders, Boswell suggested, saying riders are choosing Jumbo - "a team that's kind of going up" over Ineos who seem to be "taking a step down" each year.
"I'm friends with a couple of other riders who this past year chose to not sign with that team to go to Jumbo instead for significantly less money, because they said ... from what they've heard internally, what's happening with the team, just the culture of the team, the dynamic of it, that they're willing to race for significantly less money and go to a team where they could most likely achieve more success."
