2025 season review | INEOS Grenadiers: Disaster year or is the British team building for the future?

12 months ago, I reviewed the 2024 season for the INEOS Grenadiers, and it is safe to say I didn’t have many kind words to say about the team. Was this year any different? The 2025 season was a significant chapter for INEOS Grenadiers, the British WorldTour squad once known as the most dominant force in cycling. Their year mixed the familiar weight of expectations with the reality of a team in transition, no longer the juggernaut of the Team Sky era, yet still capable of shaping major races.

And, it was the first year of the post Tom Pidcock era, and the last of British cycling legend Geraint Thomas. With veterans winding down and new leaders emerging, INEOS spent the season recalibrating what success looks like for them in the modern peloton. This review breaks down their campaign across the classics, Grand Tours, transfers, and delivers a final verdict on their year.

INEOS Grenadiers carries one of the richest legacies in modern cycling. Under the Team Sky banner in the 2010s, they redefined Tour de France dominance with champions such as Sir Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, and Egan Bernal. But by 2025, that era had faded into the past, and the Grenadiers were focused on reconstructing an identity that fit a changing sport. Thomas was approaching retirement, Bernal continued rebuilding from injury, and the team was looking for a superstar post Pidcock.

Young climber Carlos Rodríguez was considered a GC option, while the roster also featured powerhouses like Filippo Ganna, and emerging talents Joshua Tarling, Magnus Sheffield, and Thymen Arensman. Collectively, the team sat between generations, old champions still present, new leaders pushing forward, and their 2025 approach reflected that balancing act.

On paper, INEOS produced a strong haul with 28 wins across the season. Many came in stage races, national championships, and smaller events rather than the sport’s top-tier showcases, but the raw number remained impressive. Their World Tour ranking saw them finish 8th overall, which is a fair reflection.

They remained securely within the sport’s elite, yet far removed from the dominance they once wielded. Compared to powerhouse teams like UAE Team Emirates - XRG and Visma, INEOS looked more like a top-five contender than a trophy-lifting giant. It is clear now that INEOS have a long road back to the top.

INEOS’ spring classics campaign was a mix of brilliance from a few key riders and underperformance from others. Their cobbled lineup, once expected to control races, lacked punch. Riders like Ben Turner, Josh Tarling, and Magnus Sheffield couldn’t influence the decisive moments in Belgium’s biggest races, often finding themselves on the back foot.

But the spring was salvaged, and at times electrified, by Filippo Ganna. Kwiatkowski opened the campaign with a surprise solo win at the gravel-heavy Clásica Jaén in February, but Ganna became the defining figure as the one-days intensified.

At Milano-Sanremo, he battled to a superb second behind Mathieu van der Poel, and ahead of the mighty Tadej Pogacar. The performance instantly ranked as one of the team’s best results of the season. He followed it with a podium in the E3 Saxo Classic, grabbing third against a field stacked with classics specialists. Ganna then rode to eighth at Flanders and thirteenth at Paris–Roubaix, proving he’s no longer just a time-trialist but a genuine Monument contender. Without Ganna’s consistency and strength, INEOS’ spring would have been forgettable, with him, they found a point of pride.

The Ardennes were quieter. Pogacar’s dominance made podium opportunities scarce. Overall, the classics campaign was respectable thanks to Ganna’s heroics, but revealed clear gaps in depth that the team will need to address.

INEOS entered the 2025 Giro d’Italia without a clear GC favorite, aiming to support Bernal’s continued comeback while giving young riders space to attack. Bernal rode steadily throughout, finishing seventh overall, a meaningful result considering his long road back from injury. However, after a superb first week, Bernal may have been hoping for more. Still, his 7th place gave the team 180 UCI points.

The highlight of the Giro came early, when young Josh Tarling won the Stage 2 individual time trial with a stunning ride, beating Primoz Roglic against the clock. Bernal’s top-10 and Tarling’s breakthrough victory made the Giro a quietly successful race, even if the team never figured in the battle for pink in the third week as Bernal faded.

With no marquee GC leader and Thomas no longer in GC condition, the Grenadiers arrived at the Tour with stage wins as their main objective. That approach produced two of the team’s standout moments of the entire year, both courtesy of Thymen Arensman. On Stage 14, he broke clear on the final climb to Luchon-Superbagnères and soloed to the win. Then, in Stage 19’s summit finish at La Plagne, Arensman delivered an even bigger shock by holding off both Pogacar and Vingegaard to win the stage outright. While the GC duel behind involved tactical hesitation, Arensman’s wins were some of the best moments for the team in recent years.

In the final Grand Tour, INEOS again raced with freedom and claimed three stage wins. Ben Turner took a surprise sprint victory on Stage 4, defeating Jasper Philipsen and marking a major step in his evolution. Bernal then added an emotional win on Stage 16 after joining the breakaway and outsprinting Mikel Landa, his first WorldTour victory in more than four years and a symbolic milestone in his recovery. Ganna closed out the set by dominating the Stage 18 time trial. With six Grand Tour stage wins across 2025, INEOS proved that even without a GC contender, they remained one of the most dangerous teams in the peloton when allowed to race on instinct.

The end of 2025 marked a pivotal transition. Several veterans retired, most notably Geraint Thomas, the last active link to the original Sky dynasty, who waved an emotional goodbye at the Tour of Britain.

The incoming riders signaled a new era. The biggest signing was Frenchman Kévin Vauquelin, a breakout climber who finished seventh at the Tour de France and podiumed major one-day races. Analysts called him “a diamond in its hands,” and he could become the team’s GC cornerstone. His Arkéa teammate Embret Svestad-Bårdseng joined to strengthen the climbing unit. French national champion Dorian Godon arrived to bolster the classics group, and young Scandinavian prospect Theodor Storm added future depth.

INEOS Grenadiers’ 2025 season earns a solid 7 out of 10. Look, they are by no means the team of old, but this was not as bad a year as 2024. In truth, it’s a fair reflection fo where they currently are.

They were far from their old dominance, but they also proved they’re not fading quietly. Six Grand Tour stage wins, Ganna’s huge classics rides, Tarling’s emergence, Bernal’s emotional victory, and Arensman’s Tour heroics provided the season with weight and excitement. At the same time, for their budget & resources, they need to climb the rankings in 2026.

Looking back on INEOS Grenadiers’ 2025 season, I found myself appreciating the team in a different way than in their Sky-era heyday. They aren’t the dominant force they once were, but I actually enjoyed seeing them race with more freedom and personality. Arensman winning two Tour stages by attacking instead of defending felt like a breath of fresh air. Ganna’s spring, Tarling’s Giro time trial, and Bernal’s emotional Vuelta win reminded me that this team still has real sparks. My personal favourite would have to be seeing Bernal finally get back on top, and I would love to see him pick up a grand tour podium next year.

At the same time, the lack of a true GC threat was impossible to ignore, and watching them slip further behind the sport’s super-teams was frustrating. Still, for me, 2025 showed growth rather than decline. It couldn’t have got much worse than 2024 however.

With INEOS I will be blunt from the start, it does not matter how the team has changed or some of the iconic wins they have taken for a team with a budget of over €50 million (reportedly the second in the peloton) the results are nowhere near expected and simply nowhere near what a regular sponsor would accept. The team has luck with INEOS' patience because in yet another year they not only failed to be in dispute for second-best team in the peloton, they were nowhere near it and the 8th spot in the World Tour rankings is a firm display of just how much the team has missed out on top results. It can't be rated a good season in any way.

Like most, it is a year where the team has had some successes. First and foremost, whilst not results-related, I very much admire their attitude this year with different tactics, more aggressive racing and finally putting more focus into their breakaway and classics specialists, whilst letting off the steam in Grand Tour stints that would achieve at best (yet rarely) a podium. This makes a difference in my book and I did enjoy seeing the team race this year, with the likes of Tobias Foss, Bob Jungels and Joshua Tarling being used in innovative ways that in my eyes are obvious but the traditional mindset in the peloton often prevents teams from taking such risks.

28 victories this year is not nothing, and there are big highlights such as Filippo Ganna's terrific spring (and excellent Tirreno-Adriatico that truly created that tension of a TT specialist winning a race where the climbers usually take the cake); Thymen Arensman's epic Tour of the Alps raid and subsequent Tour de France victories over Pogacar and Vingegaard (although on both occasions he benefited from Pogacar racing conservatively); Egan Bernal's return to winning ways and the transformation of Ben Turner into a sprinter who is a very interesting mix and I'm properly looking forward to see in 2026.

But the negatives come just as heavy. For Carlos Rodríguez this was a lost season, he simply had no memorable performance, did not evolve, and did not perform in his major goals. Certainly, he is not old, he remains only 24, but his peers are evolving at a scary speed and the Spaniard seems to have peaked in 2023 and remained stagnant since. Things are not looking good if he fails to take the step in 2026, which is quite possible taking into consideration he ended his season with a fractured pelvis at the Tour. Geraint Thomas is retiring this year but he was nothing more than a domestique, his level never actually allowed him to be competitive in a single race it felt, for what must've been a huge salary.

Joshua Tarling by no means had a bad year but seemingly it wasn't as good as his past two seasons, which is odd as he is maturing and I expected him to be Evenepoel's biggest rival by this point in the time trials. Magnus Sheffield had a great Paris-Nice but he exploded in Flanders and his second half of the season was completely absent, another rider with insane potential that doesn't seem to be taking the next step either. The team signed Caleb Ewan who raced for a few weeks then retired, an odd plot to the spring in which someone didn't communicate properly...

The team did have some nice performances with the likes of Sam Watson and Axel Laurance as their puncheurs and classics specialists but they haven't really performed at World Tour level. It is, again, a €50 million euro team, who need the results at the top level. And the team simply has several riders who didn't perform or show themselves this year. Even at a domestique level, or chasing breakaways, if the form is good you come out in my eyes. The team has about five riders whom I don't remember seeing a single time this year, and the fact that five riders are retiring (and another five remain without a contract despite us being in December already) is just a pile of bad signs for a team that has to get back to the top and is simply failing to do so.

And can you look at the future positively? Surely, with the likes of Rodríguez, Tarling, Sheffield, Arensman, Laurance you seem to have leader after leader after leader but they don't take the next step in what is expected of them. The team shoul sign Derek Gee but he is stuck in legal issues, Kévin Vauquelin is a good signing but at best a Top10 Grand Tour rider which the team already has plenty of, and no other signing will have any meaningful effect on the team. The future can be bright, but I would bet that it's not. For the time being.

What I miss from the current INEOS Grenadiers is some clear identity. While in the past, Sky was synonymous with the world's best GC team, its successor has been mainly successful in time trials thanks to Filippo Ganna and Josh Tarling in recent years. But with the dominant Remco Evenepoel, they have only triumphed in his absence with each taking a stage at Vuelta and Giro respectively (almost losing to Jay Vine at both occasions...).

Now that was a harsh way to open my rewind, because INEOS still managed to win 6 Grand Tour stages. Especially Thymen Arensman's performances in the third week of Tour de France are an extremely powerful memory. But with the same breath, it is important to note that with all their firepower, Ineos has won only ONE general classification in 2025 - with Sam Watson at 4 Jours de Dunkerque. On paper, the season of Ineos doesn't look all that bad, but it's the many highlights, often achieved by the less-known riders (such as Langellotti in Pologne) that improve the overall impression while Ineos didn't really achieve any of their big goals for the year since Bernal's 7th place at Giro was Ineos' best GrandTour result.

It's not a complete failure of a season thanks to the many big victories, but the future of this team will lie with it's new/most recent recruits - in particulat Kevin Vauquelin and the expected arrival of Derek Gee.I give Ineos a fair 6/10 since I think that we have seen from them in 2025 was mostly within the range of our realistic expectations, but nothing of added value.