CyclingUpToDate Podcast: "Sacrificing your team to chase a top 10..." - INEOS face hard decisions and a chaotic situation into the 2026 Tour de France

Netcompany INEOS will soon reveal their lineup for the Tour de France, but they are perhaps the team with the biggest question marks over their riders. On the CyclingUpToDate podcast, Rúben Silva, Gavin Quinn and Carlos Silva have analyzed the British team's situation and riders they may chose - and go as far as suggesting the team should change its ambitions and tactics fully.

The British team had signed Oscar Onley this past winter, a very hefty investment to buy out his contract from Team Picnic PostNL after his breakthrough fourth place at last year's Tour. He was meant to be the team's top card, but will not be present in the race.

A dislocated shoulder and plenty contusions were the result of a crash on stage 6 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, where he crashed over the side of the road and was reportedly holding on to a tree next to a ravine.

"I want to bring up INEOS [...] because in my opinion, that is the team that really has the most questions at this point, and I would also have questions for them," Rúben Silva said. "INEOS are in a situation where I would like to use language that I can in this place, I look at their team, and I don't know what to expect, I don't know who they will choose, and I don't think they know either at this point".

"Oscar Onley was supposed to be the leader, and figuratively speaking you know, the team could use the 'he's our guy, we bought out his contract in the winter, he's British, we're going to back him up, and you guys are going to be in the back, and you can have your opportunity, but it's Onley'. And then Angui crashed into a tree, and almost crashed on a ravine, and he's out of the Tour".

The situation worsened over the following days as Kévin Vauquelin was nowhere near the level expected of him. Later on it would be known that he fell ill during the race, and that this illness forced him out of the national championships this week.

"I think Vauquelin had an amazing season in 2025, and he's a rider with a lot of talent, but not even at his best level he's a podium contender at this point in time, I don't think so. But the thing is that he's also not near his best level, and he's ill, he got ill during the Tour of Auvergne.

The Frenchman finished the race far from the best in GC but in the final stage, a disheartening performance saw him get dropped by his two teammates Carlos Rodríguez and Laurens de Plus in the day's breakaway.

"His performances there were not good in the mountains at all, there's no easy way to say it. And Vauquelin is also not a rider with a tremendous track record in Grand Tours, so there's no guarantees that even if he starts the race a little bit on the lower side, that he's going to improve, and then maybe finish on the top 10".

Carlos Rodríguez also failed to finish in the Top10 but showed a good level in the mountains and might end up being the British team's card for the overall classification at the Tour. But Silva raises the question on whether the team should prioritize GC in the first place.

"INEOS is a team with a budget of 50 million, finishing on the top 10 is nothing, it's nothing to them. And at this point I think they're going to sort of protect Vauquelin and Carlos Rodriguez, maybe go for a top 10, but whereas their approach seemed to be fully going for GC, I think that they should drop that, because sacrificing your team to chase a top 10... For INEOS it doesn't make sense".

"I don't believe that Ineos have the team to win the Tour de France overall, but I do think they have the potential to be one of the most entertaining teams in the race," Carlos Silva argued. "If they stop worrying about defending a fifth or a sixth place on GC, and instead race with ambition, target stages, and attack from distance, they could end up having one of their most successful Tours in years".

The decisions over the lineup are now in full motion. The team had Joshua Tarling also lined out but the Briton also fractured his collarbone in Auvergne. Dorian Godon, Thymen Arensman and Michal Kwiatkowski are virtually confirmed and three more names are to be added. Filippo Ganna and Egan Bernal have both been strongly hinted, effectively meaning that the team will take all of their leaders from the Giro d'Italia into the Tour as well.

But whether the team chases GC or stage wins as a priority should also have a big effect on the team's choices. "I would say you wouldn't really choose a lot of domestiques, but get riders in there that are capable of winning stages," Rúben Silva argued. "And this has to be from breakaways as well, because they don't have a sprinter of the level of Phillipsen; they don't have a climber at the level of Pogacar, there's little point in trying to do that".

Starting off the Tour with a stage win and yellow jersey could however already make the team's race a success from day 1, and release the pressure for the upcoming three weeks. That is something that could be taken into strong consideration according to Gavin Quinn: "The last two weeks before the Tour de France need to be almost perfect if you want to arrive with any chance in terms of general classification, and a team time trial from day one doesn't really help. But having Egan Bernal and Pippo Ganna, that does help, so you never know".

"if I'm INEOS I'll be thinking 'okay, let's try and hit the ground running with a team time trial', they've already proven that they probably could have won the team time trial in the Dauphiné, if not for a mechanical".

But ultimately, the opinion also lays on a departure from the full-fledged GC team into a stage hunting menace. "I think all stage wins, but Geraint Thomas is your director of racing there, so a bit of a traditional guy who loves a good GC fight, so will they be strategizing about GC? I don't know..."

"But I think three of us here are in total agreement that they could clean house with stage wins if things go their way, you know, if breakaways are allowed to fight. An INEOS guy in the breakaway is going to be up there with a shout, in most cases anyway," he concluded.