“They were dominating the sport" - Bradley Wiggins comments on INEOS Grenadiers' downfall and the doubtful future of Tom Pidcock

Sir Bradley Wiggins was one of the leading lights of the early Team Sky days, cementing his place in cycling history as the first ever British Tour de France winner in 2012, forging a path for the likes of Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart to follow as the leader of the British-based team. In recent seasons however, the now named INEOS Grenadiers have found things a lot more of a struggle.

Speaking to respected cycling journalist Daniel Benson, Wiggins commented on the current INEOS Grenadiers struggles, something that culminated at the end of the 2024 season in a public spat with star rider Tom Pidcock following upper management's decision to deselect the Olympic Mountain Bike champion from the team's Il Lombardia lineup.

“They’re in bits,” the 2012 Maillot Jaune winner admits. “It seems to have gone that way with a slow decline since Dave Brailsford took his foot off the gas and left. Rod Ellingworth took over for a couple of years, but it peaked when they had all the money in the world and could buy any rider at one point. They were dominating the sport. Pidcock and Geraint have done amazing but it’s sad to see in many ways because it was a huge British Empire at one point."

Recently, INEOS announced an overhaul of their sports director staff and even hinted that in 2025, targets may change from the traditional Team Sky / INEOS Grenadiers general classification-based aims, to more one-day and stage hunting targets. “It’s fixable, of course it is. It is probably a very similar situation to the one at Manchester United (also owned by INEOS boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe ed.) in many ways. It’s a huge club, it’s a huge team, a great history and great riders," 'Wiggo' explains.

“I do know that Steve Cummings hasn’t been with the team since June. I’ve heard lots of different stories as to why and it’s interesting that someone like Steve got some of the best performances out of the team when Geraint was third at the Tour. But they’ve also landed on a very particular year in cycling when one man was extremely dominant,” he adds, noting Tadej Pogacar’s all-conquering 2024 campaign.

“Brailsford had his hand on the whole thing when I was there and with all those characters and personalities, like myself and Chris Froome, he managed it. I couldn’t even tell you who they have now but is it all a sign of how well Dave and everyone ran that team?" the 44-year-old assesses. “It has been in slow decline and what I’ve found odd is that complete change of philosophy of trying to win Grand Tours. Then it went to racing hard, winning stages, but once you’ve set out trying to win Grand Tours, anything after that is going downhill really.”

As mentioned, all the concerns reached boiling point at Il Lombardia with Pidcock's controversial deselection. “I just spoke to a couple of people about it and I read what Geraint Thomas said about it last week. Everyone is just scratching their heads a little bit but I think Geraint summed it up quite well when he said it’s more about the people around Pidcock,” Wiggins comments. “It’s a unique situation in cycling, and I don’t think we’ve ever seen that. Especially someone of his quality after what he did in the summer. But I guess his days are numbered at Ineos now. I can’t see how he can come back. I imagine the transfer will be on the horizon.”