Winner of 7 victories in the Tour de France, 1 on the Tour of Spain and 3 on the Giro d’Italia during the 10 last years, most under the old name Team Sky, the Ineos team has dominated the last decade of the Grand Tours head and shoulders. However, today, the British formation seems forced to review its objectives on the Grand Tours and even to concentrate on other races to hope to shine.
OUTSTANDING DOMINATION OVER THE LAST DECADE
How beautiful the last decade was for this Ineos team! Between leaders at the top of their game, luxury team members or even extremely qualitative staff and competition perhaps less important than today, the team was built to rule the races of 3 weeks. So, Dave Brailsford's team have crushed the last decade with their collective strength. But Chris Froome's big injury in 2019, the sudden death of conductor Nicolas Portal or the departure of many team members who legitimately wanted a leadership role in another team are all signs that already predicted a darkening of the future of this formation.
DARKENING SKIES
And the anticipated fears have indeed taken place. Indeed, since the victories of Egan Bernal on the Tour of France and Italy and of Tao Geogeghan Hart on this same Tour of Italy, the Ineos team is struggling to regain its superb.
So how to explain this? First of all, a new era has recently begun. Indeed, the leaders of yesteryear have left the team or are no longer up to the task of these demanding races, but a generation of phenomena, like the Pogacars, Vingegaard et Evenepoel est née, leaving practically only crumbs to their elders. In this new cycling, British training is therefore forced to renew itself. This is accentuated this year with the long injury of Egan Bernal, the official departure of Richard Carapaz or the arrival of new armadas more cut to win these races. And despite the very recent return of Egan Bernal to competition and the very likely arrival of Thymen Arensman in the team, we can cast doubt on the likelihood of Ineos winning a Grand Tour quickly.
It may therefore be time for change for Ineos training. But then how to make up for these shortcomings and regain the collective power that the British team possessed a few years ago??
BOUND BETTER ELSEWHERE THAN ON THE GRAND TOURS?
If the team's record has been rather disappointing on the Grand Tours for some time, the last spring of the British training blew many observers, in continuity with that of 2021, concluded with a victory in the Amstel Gold Race by Thomas Pidcock and a victory that had narrowly escaped Gianni Moscon in Paris-Roubaix.
So, This year, by winning the Hell of the North and obtaining 2nd place on the Ronde via Dylan Van Baarle, the team has demonstrated that it is capable of shining and winning renowned races in a field other than the 3 weeks. However, the Dutchman will leave Ineos at the end of the season, which removes a major victory card on these races.
Besides these uppercase performances, we have also seen this year the emergence of extremely promising runners, like Magnus Sheffield, winner of the Flèche Brabançonne, Ben Turner or Ethan Hayter. These young people will be able to support the more experienced Thomas Pidcock, Filippo Ganna or Pavel Sivakov and Carlos Rodriguez on one-day or one-week races. Of course, the Ineos Grenadiers team does not really seem, at present, able to battle with the big names of the classics. But by gaining experience and bringing in other riders cut out for these races, the result could be very interesting in a few years, while not completely abandoning the Grand Tours for which the Ineos team will always have a card to play for the final victory.
