"These guys might be the best bet if you're INEOS" - Bruyneel and Martin discuss British team's possible 2026 signings

INEOS Grenadiers have announced this Friday the renewal of five riders into the 2026 season, the five riders that were still not signed into the upcoming season. Hence, now with 27 riders for the upcoming season, the team is close to its final form. But who will still be added? Derek Gee and Oscar Onley are options, discussed by Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin.

"If Oscar Onley, let's say he does go to INEOS, we don't know if it's going to happen... But if he does, is he a good acquisition for them and where is the team heading with him as the leader," Spencer Martin questions on The Move podcast.

"I think it's good for both. The question is also again, is Oscar Onley going to perform at the same level when he's not with Picnic PostNL anymore," Johan Bruyneel responds. "I would guess yes. I think for INEOS they kind of need a British top rider and it's the only one right now that would be available. I mean there's the Yates brothers but they're set - and they've been already at INEOS or Sky (correction: only Adam Yates was, ed.)"

The Briton, fourth at this year's Tour de France, was a massive revelation. Not only has he proven his ability to contest for the overall classification of a Grand Tour, but he's done so at a Tour de France where the racing was relentless from day one, and where only Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz were stronger than him.

Onley is a rider that has put on a very strong showing throughout the entire Grand Boucle and having achieved this at age 22, there is plenty potential room for progression. Despite having a contract until 2027 with the Dutch team, it has been rumoured for months that INEOS has been trying to buy out his contract. They didn't manage to do this with Remco Evenepoel, but Onley is perhaps within financial range of the British team.

"Oscar Onley i think it would make sense". But he is not the only big Grand Tour figure INEOS is still having in mind. The other is Derek Gee, who was rumoured to be terminating his contract with Israel - Premier Tech and joining INEOS in early August, but ever since, there's been almost complete silence on the matter as he tackles legal issues after what the team deemed to be an unlawful contract termination.

"We still don't know what's going to happen with Derek Gee, but I would say, with all due respect for both of those riders, Derek Gee is also not - at least he hasn't proven yet that he is a solid leader that a team can really build their whole program around, and neither is Oscar Onley," Bruyneel argues. It is a difficult point to make, taking into consideration both have finished fourth respectively at the Giro and Tour this year, and were absolute leaders in their teams.

However, the Belgian pundit bases this opinion more on the fact that they are, at the time being, podium contenders in these races at best: "Onley has probably been more consistent than Derek Gee, but they're podium candidates in Grand Tours, they're not candidate winners in Grand Tours in today's cycling I would say. There's not many right? There's not many riders who can win Grand Tours and are available and that would be interesting".

But until this Friday, INEOS only had 22 riders signed for 2026, and at the time being they continue to have three open spots to be taken, and deals behind the scenes are likely still being worked on. "I think the fact that it has remained so quiet at the transfer front for INEOS speaks for, in my opinion, there's still something cooking," he believes. "I think the Derek Gee situation, the agreement is done between the scenes, now it's to be solved legally".

"The Oscar Onley possibility, I think Brailsford is still going to try and make it happen". Martin agrees with that possibility: "I think the fact that Sam Welsford was coming and now it's pending, it's not signed. They're waiting to see something..." Although unlikely, the three positions could ultimately be filled by Onley, Gee and Welsford. The latter two are likely, as Welsford - according to journalist Daniel Benson - moving to the British team has become a topic of discussion again recently.

"Let me play devil's advocate here. let's say Oscar Onley, Derek Gee and Kévin Vauquelin go to that team for next year," Martin continues. "All three of those guys, and I say this with all due respect, were in far inferior teams in terms of money they spend on training camps, equipment, trains, methodology. If they were doing what they were doing with those teams... If you're Dave Brailsford you're thinking 'I bring them in and these are thoroughbreds hiding in plain sight versus someone like Juan Ayuso who was on the world's best team', because that's the other alternative".

Certainly, it is possible that an improvement is possible with the British team, that is something that remains to be seen, if the moves to indeed happen. And the British team, despite having the money, simply do not have the market leverage they had a decade ago, and are unable to sign the riders who are certain Grand Tour victory favourites.

"Because Tadej Pogacar is not available, Jonas Vingegaard is not available, Isaac del Toro is not available... There are not a lot of options left, these guys might be the best bet if you're INEOS," he concluded.