"The wheels have come off" the INEOS Grenadiers according to Bob Roll & Christian Vande Velde: "Cycling needs them to turn the page"

There's no doubting the fact that heading into 2025, things are looking somewhat bleak for the INEOS Grenadiers. Big names such as Jhonatan Narvaez, Luke Rowe and Ethan Hayter have all departed, as have behind the scenes figures such as Dan Bigham and Steve Cummings. The reported tension almost even sent star rider Tom Pidcock searching for a new team.

The struggles of the formerly dominant British side have been a big topic of discussion amongst experts and analysts the world over of late. On the most recent episode of NBC Sports Cycling's Beyond the Podium podcast, the American duo of Bob Roll and Christian Vande Velde cast their experienced eyes over the situation at the INEOS Grenadiers.

"It seems like it's gone from the best team in the world not that long ago, to struggling for results and now, it seems like the wheels have come off the bus and they can barely hold onto their star riders," Roll begins. "I'm talking specifically about Tom Pidcock. Rumours he was going to change teams, but it looks as if he'll stay there. A lot of chaos in the team INEOS camp, there's no other way to describe it."

"There really isn't," Vande Velde agrees. "I really felt for them this year. It was hard to watch at times, the culture around it as well. Hopefully they can turn the page, cycling needs them to turn the page. We can't just have a couple of teams that are dominant, we need more teams to make it better racing within the peloton. They have the foundation there, they just need to find that grassroots of what made them into a powerhouse to begin with."

It more than just a case of bad decision making or poor management Vande Velde believes. "Let's not forget they've had a lot of bad luck. They had some of the biggest riders have some catastrophic injuries at the wrong time of their contracts," the American ex-pro notes. "Egan Bernal. We didn't think he would ever come off the top step, and although he's doing better numbers now, he's just not competitive in this day and age."

As he admits though, it's not going to be easy for INEOS to get back to the top. "When you get yourself that far into a corner, where do you start?" Vande Velde wonders. "I think you just have to clean house with a lot of people who have maybe been there too long and take a good hard look in the mirror... As far as the first basic step though, I have no clue!"