Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at 12:44 PM
Things have been going on at INEOS Grenadiers for a while now. Johan Bruyneel even thinks that the situation is so serious that we will no longer see the British team in the professional peloton in a few years. The former team leader of US Postal, among others, said this in the podcast The Move.
The direct reason for Bruyneel’s statements was the Tom Pidcock case. The 25-year-old Briton, one of the big faces of INEOS Grenadiers, has already expressed his dissatisfaction with the way things are going at the team and, to his dismay, was not included in the selection for the Tour of Lombardy last weekend. But Bruyneel sees more signals that things are not going well for the successor of the famous Team Sky.
“I first saw red flags when they sidelined Steve Cummings, the head of all the sports directors, for the Tour de France for no apparent reason. He had to stay at home and the team came up with a ridiculous statement that he would manage things from home. That doesn’t make sense,” said Bruyneel, who also mentions the departure of Dan Bigham. The performance engineer criticized the course of events at INEOS Grenadiers and switched to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe after the Olympic Games.
There is ‘something strange going on’ at INEOS, says Bruyneel. “Something tells me that Ratcliffe is not that interested in the cycling team anymore,” he refers to Jim Ratcliffe, the CEO of INEOS Grenadiers. “And if he still is, then the people who advise him are not, and they want to get rid of the team. It looks to me like the team is slowly but surely disappearing. They still have some riders under contract until the end of 2027, but I see this as a way to get out before 2027 and save money.”
According to Bruyneel, this can also be seen in the team’s transfer policy. “They haven’t signed a big rider and Pidcock is their biggest talent. They have brought in other talents, but no expensive contracts have been signed. They have not made any major investments. I see this as the beginning of the end for INEOS. They will definitely be there next year. I already have my doubts about 2026, but 2027? I don’t think so.”
