For half an hour, it looked like the floodgates had truly opened. After Michał Kwiatkowski won the Clásica Jaén last Monday - Ineos Grenadiers’ first pro win in 226 days - and Josh Tarling won the time trial at the UAE Tour - the team’s first WorldTour win in 254 days - Filippo Ganna looked like he had won stage one of the Volta ao Algarve on Wednesday. The dream of three wins in three days wasn’t to be, with that opening stage cancelled in farcical circumstances, but it was close.
However, these wins - or ghost wins - were not an end to Ineos’ exciting week of European racing. At the Ruta del Sol, Brandon Rivera challenged Tom Pidcock to the win on stage two, before Ben Turner almost won stage three, out-sprinted by Alexander Kristoff only, and then Connor Swift battled to third after a day in the breakaway on stage five. Meanwhile, at the concurrent Volta ao Algarve, Filippo Ganna almost won again, finishing third on stage four, before Laurens De Plus came third overall.
Are Ineos Grenadiers fun? I would have followed this with “again”, but the British WorldTour team have not been known entertainers, save for individual dazzling displays from Tom Pidcock, and Egan Bernal; the past Ineos/Sky were just monotonously successful, especially at the Tour de France. Well, are they fun now? The answer is kind of, so far. They seem to have thrown off their shackles a little bit, relaxed, and become more attacking.
Obviously, this is just the end of February, and the new vibrant style might not last as the racing gets harder and the opposition tougher, but it certainly bodes well. For years, post peak-Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal, Ineos have struggled for identity; they have been a GC team without a star GC rider. Now, rather than going through the motions of the Sky train days, they seem to be trying something different, and it appears to be working. Rather than acting like they are the same level as UAE Team Emirates or Visma-Lease a Bike - it is clear they are not - they are racing like the underdogs they often are. It is refreshing.
Perhaps losing Tom Pidcock has not been the disaster that it might have been, with the Brit taking up a lot of the team’s bandwidth and often being the priority at races. Free of one central star, Ineos can share opportunities around more, say yes to improbable moves and try new things. It won’t always work, and this strategy will go through tough times, but it is certainly a novel approach, and it should be welcomed. Pidcock has won as many times as his former team this year, sure, but it is only the end of February.
The question is, how long can this last? Cycling is still a results sport, and Ineos Grenadiers still want to be challenging at the biggest bike races, not just the second-tier events that have proved fruitful so far. The Tour de France remains the big goal, as it does for almost every team, and success here is a long way off, however one looks at it. If they can continue with their aggression, though, they could well be successful on stages at the Tour and the Giro d’Italia, or during the Classics. Aiming lower could help the team, especially in the absence of Carlos Rodríguez, who broke his collarbone at the UAE Tour, and an in-form Egan Bernal, who did the same thing in Spain.
The other thing that could derail the revitalised Ineos Grenadiers is the future - or lack of a future - of their main sponsorship. Monday’s Ineos Sport news had nothing to do with cycling, but instead Manchester United, Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s current pet project. The Guardian reported that Ineos are to close the staff canteen at Old Trafford and replace the free lunches currently on offer with fruit, while doing the same at the training ground. It follows news that more redundancies are to come at the English club, with up to 200 more coming, on top of 250 already made.
Manchester United are not the only part of the Ineos Sport empire currently going through changes, with the company withdrawing from a deal with New Zealand Rugby - Ineos said that this was a “cost-saving measure”. Amid this maelstrom at Ineos Sport, the cycling team, Ineos Grenadiers, are surely not immune from cost cutting, and they are reportedly looking for a new sponsor too.
The team might very well continue their freewheeling approach to 2025, and that will be fun. I just hope that the funds are there to keep this up, and that the vibes remain good; 2024 was such a low - they won just 14 times - that it is hard for things to be worse, and so anything might be better. It is so far, but the future still remains clouded.
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If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com, or comment below.
