"The team needs to be thoroughly overhauled" - Dutch pundits agree that INEOS needs to move on from their past if they aim to succeed in the future
Cycling
INEOS Grenadiers had been in a decline for a few years but it was never as painfully clear as at the end of this season that big changes need to be made to ensure the legacy of the British team dubbed 'The Empire' in the past will live on. Frankly, departures of key staff and talents such as Tom Pidcock don't seem to steps in the right direction.
"In 2017 they won the Tour de France and the Vuelta with Froome. In 2018 they came forward again with Froome and Thomas, with the win in the Giro and the Tour and no less than 43 victories. Then followed the Tour victory with Egan Bernal in 2019 and two years later the victory in the Giro," Sander Valentijn sums up in the Eurosport podcast Kop Over Kop.
So far so good news, but from 2022 onwards things will go wrong. "There were still 39 victories then, including Paris-Roubaix, and in 2023 there were 38 victories. This season, however, they did not get further than 14 victories. It may be scoreboard journalism, but the question remains: what is INEOS' focus point?" Valentijn continues.
Jan Hermsen believes that success is hard to maintain, especially with such a dominant team. "When you are that good, success makes you a bit lazy," Hermsen thinks. "We have seen with other teams, such as Visma | Lease a Bike, that the focus slowly fades. You automatically work a little less, and INEOS can keep that up for a while, but eventually you have to sweep it clean."
According to Hermsen, the team is living in the past missing the chances to build for the future. "Just say goodbye to Thomas, Froome, Bernal and other big names who are paid a lot. It is a very tough cutback, and that is not popular."
Bobbie Traksel agrees with Hermsen. "In the Sky era, they were innovative and ahead of everyone else. Now they are still doing the same thing, but they are not winning anymore. The current INEOS has missed the mark, and the team needs to be thoroughly overhauled."
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- Hirschi and Alaphilippe on Cancellara's team, honestly sounds like a great choice if they manage to play the game the way Van der Poel did, a few years ago. They know where they need to be at the end of next year, in terms of points, so now it's just a question of being there. I'm not sure Alaphilippe will play the role he dreams of, and his jerky movements on the bike continue to annoy me, but I truly wish him and the team the best of luck in reaching their goal. It makes for better racing when teams like Tudor (he still refers to it as a "project," love that) are fighting to get into the World Tour.RidesHills09-01-2025
- Nice to see him with a sense of humor about the wins. That's actually a really good sign of how he's feeling, most of the time.RidesHills09-01-2025
- He’s good at messing up his WCs ;-)Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- so, tom could dedicate himself to CX all year, every year and probably never beat mathieu in a cyclocross world championship, barring a crash or injury or whatever. does pidcock have that kind of advantage over van der poel in XCO, or is that a gap mvdp can close even at this latter stage of mathieu’s career?OCexile09-01-2025
- Yes, I also think teams should start re-evaluating their TdF commitments according to rider goals. As long as a rider doesn’t have any realistic chance of sone form of glory, don’t force them just to end up with a forgettable result, give someone else on the team the experience and chance to prove themselves and let your better rider focus on goals they CAN aim for. You really get the feeling some riders are being forced to pretend they can achieve something when they know they haven’t got a hope.Mistermaumau09-01-2025
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- I hope for the sake of others she doesn’t become an expert ;-) As OCexile has pointed out she’s capable enough of winning already. The others won’t be as tolerant of her as the men are of Pog if she starts sweeping everything up.Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- i’m ashamed to admit that i really don’t know enough about mtb and xco to know mathieu’s chances of winning world’s if he dedicates his season to that discipline once the spring classics are over. anyone want to take a moment to enlighten me i’d appreciate your take on it.OCexile09-01-2025
- So he goes to FDJ lol.Suipedali09-01-2025
- Cannot blaim him with those 2 super humansspock12309-01-2025