"The ship is sinking and everyone is jumping off!" - Johan Bruyneel's scathing assessment of the INEOS Grenadiers
CyclingFriday, 08 November 2024 at 21:30
After some disappointing campaigns, the INEOS Grenadiers recently announced an overhaul of their performance staff, seeing notable names such as Steve Cummings leave their role as sports director and new man in charge, Kurt Asle Arvesen openly admitting the team need to change their goals from GC to stage hunting.
It's fair to say, this is a considerable drop off for the team once undisputedly the dominant force in the peloton. "Everybody is leaving the ship. The ship is sinking and everyone is jumping off!" Former sports director Johan Bruyneel assesses of the team's current situation on the latest episode of his 'The Move' podcast.
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"It's a big snowball effect right?" Bruyneel continues. "A lot of guys were there for a while already, hired by Dave Brailsford, close relationship with Rod Ellingworth. The fact Ellingworth has left has also had an impact on a lot of staff and you know, high quality staff people in cycling are always in demand. There's a lot of other teams who you know are willing to to pay decent contract to these guys as we saw with Dan Bigham leaving to Red Bull."
"I think it's telling to see that these people are leaving and I don't know who they're going to replace them with," continues the Belgian. "We saw already that in terms of hiring new riders it's not been fantastic. They're losing Jhonatan Narvaez and the guys who are coming in, there's Bob Jungels, Axel Laurance, but not super big riders. Not saying that the other guys are not good riders, but at least this guy (Laurance ed.) can win races which is what they need."
Arguably the biggest flashpoint involving INEOS in recent weeks though, involves star rider Tom Pidcock, who was controversially deselected for Il Lombardia and has since been heavily linked with a departure. "Some rumours that he might be staying now! I still can't see that happening actually so we'll see," Bruyneel concludes. "I mean, what's clear is that right now, INEOS or Team Sky from the early days, is not the benchmark anymore. They're not even in the top three, not even in the top four of teams that people want to go to."
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