"Hopefully I can help get the team back to where it was" - INEOS wonderkid sets out stall for future success

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.