So far, the start of the season has been quite promising for them, and more importantly, we're seeing them race like a dominant, winning team again, even though they still lack a true GC contender for the Grand Tours. That said,
Geraint Thomas in his final professional year, and Carlos Rodríguez, now without Pidcock demanding attention, are performing at a high level. This season, they have claimed victories in the Colombian Championships with
Egan Bernal, the Clasica Jaén Paraíso Interior with
Michal Kwiatkowski, and 3 WorldTour stage wins:
Joshua Tarling in the UAE time trial,
Filippo Ganna in Tirreno, and Magnus Sheffield in the final stage of
Paris-Nice.
It’s in these two latter races,
Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice, where we’ve seen INEOS dominant once more. In Tirreno, they led the race with an exceptional Filippo Ganna, who, although he didn’t win, finished second, narrowly beaten by Juan Ayuso. Watch out for his form in Milano-Sanremo.
In Paris-Nice, they were incredibly active, attacking in all the mountain stages, and on the fifth stage, they, along with Team Jumbo-Visma, shattered the race in crosswinds. They ultimately finished with 3 top-10s, and a podium for
Thymen Arensman.
As we said, this isn't the INEOS of the Froome era, but it’s starting to look like it again. Ganna himself is clear about the team’s ambition, as he said after Tirreno-Adriatico: “As a team, we want to be the number one in the world again. It’s a long road, it will take time, but we’re going to try to improve and climb higher. It’s a long year, but we’ve started quite well.”