After Tour Down Under disappointment, INEOS Grenadiers confirm '7' for Surf Coast Classic in search of first 2025 win
Cycling
INEOS Grenadiers are a team that has changed a lot over the past year, and amongst those changes were the loss of more leaders such as Tom Pidcock and Ethan Hayter; as well as several important staff members. The team was even described by Hayter to be 'run like a business', and 2025 is an opportunity to change this in the British structure. The team confirms it's lineup for the Surf Coast Classic where they are aiming to win for the first time this year.
At the Tour Down Under the team had several cards such as Michal Kwiatkowski, Lucas Hamilton, Geraint Thomas and Magnus Sheffield to play but only the latter managed to fight for the overall classification - finishing seventh, 27 seconds behind race leader Jhonatan Narváez. Whilst for the American it's a solid result, overall the team has not had the best of weeks.
Later on this weekend it will race the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race where the hilly finale may be well suited for the amount of cards it has, but the former World Tour-dominator does not currently have a sprinting option who can safely bring a result if the attacks do not come to fruition.
At the Surf Coast Classic a bunch sprint is expected, and so either Samuel Watson or Ben Swift will be protected and guided into the final kilometers after bringing in Top10 results at the Tour Down Under. However the start of the race, which features a 10-kilometer long climb, could very well be a chance for these riders to go on the attack and try to make it hard for the fast men. INEOS come in with the same lineup featuring the four riders mentioned above, as well as Connor Swift to complete the '7'.
INEOS Grenadiers for Surf Coast Classic:
Lucas Hamilton
Michal Kwiatkowski
Magnus Sheffield
Ben Swift
Connor Swift
Geraint Thomas
Samuel Watson
Our Australian road trip continues on Thursday 🇦🇺
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) January 27, 2025
It's an unchanged lineup for the Surf Coast Classic 👊🏄♂️ pic.twitter.com/aB7rlQyTBQ
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- Two riders unlike any others over the past few decades, during this era of carb fueling, seems relevant to me.RidesHills23-03-2025
- Funny that they shorten women’s races but have no qualms about letting U23 do the same distances.Jumpyjohn23-03-2025
- Why is that relevant when discussing speed?Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- But he wasn’t the only one ;-)Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Obviously the questions are more important to some here than to them or the team so I suggest looking for answers instead of asking questions between ourselves. We’ll probably get them unless someone actually goes to ask the protagonists themselves. Here are some starters : They like riding together; they have their own rivalry that helps bring out the best in both; they might get more points helping each other compared to racing separate races. In any case, unless we hear MJ complaining about it, I don’t think it’s going to change, it’s the Sepp Kuss syndrome all over again, fans lobbying against the will of the rider.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Mine goes to MVDP for entertaining us all year round :-) Stellar race, Ganna impressive in his own way as many predicted after some oddly lacklustre times.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025
- They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.Cooldude23-03-2025
- bravissima!
maria2024202423-03-2025