Luke Rowe critical of INEOS tactics at the Tour de France: “We are battling with Carlos and Tom for the podium against Jai Hindley and he now has a huge lead because we helped"

The INEOS Grenadiers entered the 2023 Tour de France in something of a flux. Without one of the overall favourites, as they are traditionally used to, they instead are battling for the minor GC places. According to one of their own riders however, the tactics used leave a lot to be desired.

"We had Omar Fraile and Daniel Martinez in a breakaway of about thirty or forty riders. There were many teams with riders who could rise in the standings, or even go for the yellow jersey. We only rode for Martinez's stage victory," says Luke Rowe on his 'Watts Occuring' podcast, referencing stage 5 in which Jai Hindley took victory and moved into the Maillot Jaune. “With what I've seen in the last six weeks, is Martinez a favourite to win the stage in such a group? Probably not. You only ride in such a leading group if you can get a big advantage from it, and if you are one of the favourites. If you're not, you're not driving. Dani is a teammate, but I wouldn't have had as much confidence in him as the team had now."

In terms of INEOS Grenadiers general classification ambitions, both Carlos Rodriguez and Tom Pidcock both hold placing in the top 10. Following Hindley's performance on stage 5 however, the pair are around two and three minutes down respectively, on the Australian who has since lost the overall lead to Jonas Vingegaard but remains on the podium.

“We are battling with Carlos and Tom for the podium against Jai and he now has a huge lead because we helped ride," Rowe laments. "But hey, talking behind is easy. In hindsight it was a mistake to ride."