Spencer Martin and Johan Bruyneel discuss Pidcock and INEOS' update - "Do they really want to go on with the team?"

INEOS Grenadiers have hosted a pre-season camp in Manchester, UK, where their riders and staff for the 2025 season attended. This included a Tom Pidcock who seems to be more likely to remain in the team; but not key DS Steve Cummings who was let go by the team - the same faith of several other main figures of the team's staff throughout the past few months.

"Steve Cummings finally leaves, it feels like this has been happening for half a year at this point. The weirdest thing is they're on the record saying 'this is totally normal he's not leaving the team' and then now it's official, he's leaving the team," Spencer Martin points out in The Move podcast. "It looks like Tom Pidcock's staying, it's like hostage video-esque look where he was at the Manchester United - Chelsea game and they were all in suits which is odd [...] But it looks like Pidcock is staying, Steve Cummings gone, what's the story behind the scenes here?"

It has been a very turbulent period for INEOS, having lost many of their leaders in the past few seasons without truly replacing them; losing the ability to fight for Grand Tour wins in similar way they have in the past; having very high salaries for riders who are struggling to perform at the highest level; and most recently many staff members departing the team. The non-selection of Tom Pidcock to Il Lombardia also showed a very clear and public management issue in the team.

Johan Bruyneel argues that it was clear the story would develop this way: "I don't know the details but obviously Cummings leaving is the next logical step, we saw it coming. He has not been seen at the races or close to the team since the Dauphiné... There was some weird communication but for me it was clear that he was gone, even if he still had a contract. We also saw the head trainer leave, all these other key people leave starting with [Rod] Ellingworth, Dan Bigham, really a lot of key staff. What can we say about it?"

But is it viable to say the situation is stabilizing? In Manchester, the team gathered this week for a few days to meet new riders and staff, and this included Tom Pidcock who by this time last month was given as an almost certain departure from the team.

The former rider and DS commented on the developing situation with the British XCO Olympic Champion. "Pidcock was surprisingly present at the first team gathering, what we know is he has a huge salary and it's not so easy if INEOS would like to see Pidcock move on to another team and get rid of the 4/5 million pound contract - it's not happening," he assures. "Because there's not enough teams or a team that is willing or able to make that effort and INEOS probably would like to pay a little bit to see him leave but it's not happening. if I'm Pidcock and I see I have another three years of contract... It's 15 million. What are they going to do with this? At least next year it looks like he's going to be in INEOS".

It's a very dynamic situation, that develops almost by the week. The team has not yet publicly confirmed, but there are very clear signs that it has confirmed an agreement with a German under-23 to form a sort of development team at long last. This is combined with a lot of new staff coming in, and talk of new and more realistic ambitions in the modern peloton.

"It's like panic maneuvers that they're doing things right. The thing about the development team, what I saw it's not their own development team, it's an association with a German team. If you do that, it will take some years to make your own. You can say 'do they really want to go on with the team?'" Bruyneel questions. "Having they're own development team would say yes, but it's definitely not the right way to go. I cannot figure out what's going on there, and I think behind the scenes something else might be cooking that maybe during the next season we're going to talk about".