"Pidcock doesn’t like Cummings, and Cummings doesn’t like Pidcock" - Insight revealed into chaos inside INEOS Grenadiers over 2024
Cycling
INEOS Grenadiers have been having a few rough years which until now have not seen the end of it. We see new information come out regarding relationships between riders and staff within the team including Tom Pidcock and the departing DS Steve Cummings.
This was according to a report from Escape Collective who had insight from plenty current and former members of the British team. It was said that the problems emerged from the team's management and at the top former team manager Dave Brailsford: “The basic problem has been that Dave lost interest, time, and commitment three years ago and that inhibited recruitment, budget issues, and decision making, and it’s why they’ve lost some key riders who they should have kept.”
Trying to regather itself, the team brough back Rod Ellingworth - who had been pivotal in the team's creation and development - into the leading role of the team, but this too ended almost exactly a year ago as he had difficulties with the job at hand: “[Rod] was totally frustrated and burned out by the decision-making process. Things were supposedly in his hands but never were in reality...he couldn’t get decisions out of people like DB"
Ellingworth became the director of the Tour of Britain and after a short and unsuccessful stint at INEOS, returned to Bahrain - Victorious. The team has lost plenty staff members including most notably DS Steve Cummings who was only officially let go in the past few days; Aerodynamics expert Dan Bigham who went on to join a rival team and the coach of climbers such as Egan Bernal and Carlos Rodríguez Xabier Artetxe.
The report indicates that Brailsford's lack of leadership at a key time proved key for this ultimate demise of the team from the very top of the charts, as the team lost leaders such as Tao Geoghegan Hart, Adam Yates, Richard Carapaz, Dylan van Baarle, Pavel Sivakov, Daniel Martínez and most recently Jhonatan Narváez - whilst Egan Bernal's injuries also proved a massive obstacle. In return, in these last few years it can only be said that young Briton Joshua Tarling's transfer proved to bring in very meaningful wins and promise for the future. But the team however remained locked when it came to it's budget, somehow not being able to have the possibilities to sign new leaders capable of battling it out with the new generation of GC riders.
The most recent controversy was a massive one and it involved Tom Pidcock, who had found good form for the first time in months on the road just in time for Il Lombardia, finishing second at the Giro dell'Emilia, and was not selected for the Italian monument where he was set to be the team leader, the decision being taken by the management with no reason given. Pidcock's departure seemed likely at that point, and certain after the incident, however at the time being it seems to not be the case anymore as he remained in the team and has joined it in a small camp in Great Britain recently.
A big point of contention was his relationship with some of the team staff. One such case was reported as to him being vocally upset about new team CEO John Allert saying the team had to act as a 'tribe' and would have to follow orders under consequence of what Pidcock termed as being 'booted out'. "So you're saying if we don't fall in line we get booted out? Well, that's shit," one such conservation was said to have occurred.
He had apparently also had issues with Cummings, who was sidelined from the team in the summer, but only recently officially being taken out of the team. "Steve tried to bring him back into line but it backfired and Steve is paying for it. Ultimately, Pidcock doesn’t like Cummings, and Cummings doesn’t like Pidcock.”
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NEWS: We are pleased to announce that the INEOS Grenadiers will join forces with the highly respected German Continental outfit @lottokernhaus as an official development partner in 2025 🤝🙌
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) November 13, 2024
Read more: https://t.co/6eaPFFxRXc pic.twitter.com/ck7oBLKHls
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