"With the budget and history they have, expectation is they should be right there with Visma & UAE but they don't have the firepower" - INEOS urged to shift from GC focus

For so long, the INEOS Grenadiers led the way in the peloton, winning numerous Grand Tours in the 2010s and even the Giro d'Italia in 2020. Since the emergence of the likes of Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel though, the team have been playing catch up. So is it time to drop the GC ambitions for more realistic goals?

This question was posed to US cycling experts and ex-pros Bob Roll and Brent Bookwalter on the latest episode of NBC Sports Cycling's Beyond the Podium podcast. "For me, for INEOS, they don't have that marquee, GC rider right now," begins Roll, three-time Tour de France competitor in the 80s. "They don't have a Tadej, a Jonas, a Remco although there has been rumours, or a Primoz Roglic. But maybe there problems are not that unique. Nobody has a rider of that calibre, so maybe the GC battle, for the foreseeable future, should be something they shouldn't focus on. That could go a long way in reassuring people they are still a viable squad."

Geraint Thomas had podiumed at the last two Giro d'Italias, but at the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana, top-10 finishes have been the best INEOS could hope for over recent seasons. "Unless you're talking about the 'Big 4' riders, you're basically fighting for scraps," Bookwalter notes. "We heard INEOS talk last year about shifting the mentality, wanting to be aggressive and more attacking, but you can tell by watching them, that is not the pedigree or the heritage that team has."

As such, it won't be that easy to shift completely away from a GC focus according to Bookwalter. "Back to the Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome days, they were known for staring at their power metres and the reality is, that organisation just don't have the leader to finish that off now," he continues. "So I hope they continue to pivot, adapt and race a little more aggressive."

"In the GC expectation, the odds are against you, you're fighting for third at best," concludes the 40-year-old American. "With the budget they have and the history they have, the expectation is still they should be right there with Visma and UAE but the reality is they don't have the firepower to do it."