With stage three ending in a big bunch sprint, it was Artem Shmidt who led us in on the day. At the halfway point of #TOG2024, @O_RodGar is up there in the GC mix, with an eye on Saturday's queen stage.
"Hopefully I can help get the team back to where it was" - INEOS wonderkid sets out stall for future success
CyclingFriday, 18 October 2024 at 18:00
It's not all that long ago that the INEOS Grenadiers were considered the undisputed kings of the peloton. Having seen the likes of UAE Team Emirates, Team Visma | Lease a Bike, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe and more overtake them in recent seasons however, question marks surround the future of the former Team Sky.
One of those riders that INEOS hope can guide them to a bright and successful future, is the 20-year-old American, Artem Shmidt, who's been riding for the team since August. "From a personal standpoint, I just hope to continue now to develop and hopefully I can help get the team back to where it was," he says in conversation with Cycling Weekly. "Whether that’s a team role over the next few years, I really want to prioritise that, helping the team the best I can to get back to where it has been before."
In the 2010s the INEOS Grenadiers, then named Team Sky, were the dominant force in cycling, holding a strong grip over the Grand Tours through the likes of Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal and Tao Geoghegan Hart thanks to their revolutionary 'marginal gains' system and their typical 'Sky Train' tactics that the peloton struggled to compete with.
In more recent years and especially in 2024 however, problems have begun to arise. The latest of which has seen an internal dispute end in Tom Pidcock's shock 'deselection' from Il Lombardia, a call that come from the team's upper management no less.
The team haven't completely given up the ghost just yet though. Of late there has been a concerted effort in attempting to bring in potential stars of the future such as Shmidt, his compatriot Andrew August and Danish youngsters Theodor Storm and Peter Oxenberg among others. "For sure it’s the plan," Shmidt notes. "We signed a lot of young guys lately, including myself, AJ August, Magnus Sheffield and Michael Leonard. So I hope we can all develop, push on and help the team in the best way we can." Time will tell if these riders can bring back INEOS to the top of the peloton.
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- I counted 16 riders under 24 out of 43 that started. Once was only 16 ! Two of the top riders are Zoe and Schreiber and both under 23 yet that have done 50 min races in the past with the elites so I think it's just bad clock management. Let them race 50 freakin' minutes! One more lap could have made a big dffierence most times in the podium and winner.frieders319-11-2024
- He needs to finish out his contract and then go hit MTB and Cross/Gravel really hard, that's where his heart is.awp18-11-2024
- Pidcock is starting to sound like Froome now.Sweep18-11-2024
- I think this was because there were junior women in the race. If a race has junior women am pretty sure it has to be less than 45 minutes. I believe a rule is coming in for next season that will fine organisers that don't put on a junior women's race a fine equivalent to the prize money. So fingers crossed we should see more longer elite and junior women's races from next season.NorrisHippocampe18-11-2024
- Of course he CAN. Big salary in cycling is not when you win but when they talk about you (and your team / sponsors). For every news about Jonas, MVdP or Wout there are 10 times more(!) news about Pidcock (like everyday for last 2 months?). Since cycling is advertising sport not competitive sport (in terms of from money comes from) Pidcock is winner and GOAT - change my mind. ;-)averagecyclist18-11-2024
- Why do the women CXs keep getting short changed with the length of theor races? They could have easily done another lap to put them at 50 minutes which is their time limit. Yet another CX race where they fail to reach this when they had a chance to. Come on ... the math isn't that hard to figure out lap times and divide into 50 min!frieders318-11-2024
- All pro cyclists are massively underpaid! The amount of riding and physical exertion they put their bodies through is crazy compared to other sports. I can't think of any other sport where you are physically active at a very high level of power output for hours on end each day.Pogboom17-11-2024
- When I was working for Starkist/Heinz my manager quit. So the next week my group was put under another manager. During our first meeting he asked if there was anything we needed to tell him. I said that I would be out the following week on vacation. He said "I don't know if I can let you go on vacation". I replied, "You can't tell if I can go. You can only tell me if I can come back".Sweep17-11-2024
- :-)Sweep17-11-2024
- What a mess there :-)
DareDevil17-11-2024