Geraint Thomas lifts the lid on INEOS's time trial strategy for Tour de France stage 1

The Tour de France kicks off Saturday in Barcelona with a team time trial. This is the first time since 2019, so it’s hard to say which teams have been able to prepare the best. Judging by the names and their time trial abilities, Netcompany INEOS quickly stands out, but how do they view their own chances? Geraint Thomas provided a detailed preview at the team’s press conference.

For the past three years, the World Time Trial Championship has gone to Remco Evenepoel, who now rides for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, but before that, it was current INEOS Tour participants Filippo Ganna and Tobias Foss who became world champions. Add to that Joshua Tarling as European champion and fast riders like Thymen Arensman, Kévin Vauquelin, Michal Kwiatkowski, and Dorian Godon, and you’re talking about a top-tier team.

With that group—and any team—Day 1 is a major goal. “I’d be lying if I said otherwise,” Thomas admits honestly. “As the guys already said, the team time trial is an event that we’ve been thinking about since the start of the year: training for this event as a group is a no-brainer. It’s mainly about giving the guys the chance to perform at their best.”

"It's just like everything else: you're not going to win the mountains jersey without climbing a mountain. So we’ve done some team time trial training together, and that gives you some practice and builds that sense of familiarity among the team. But of course, there have been some setbacks there as well,” explains Thomas, who will be without Oscar Onley, among others.

"If we had sat down in January and decided on the lineup for the team time trial, it would have been different from the one that’s starting now. But it’s just a great opportunity for us, and why shouldn’t we just give it a shot? The guys are motivated, and we have world-class time trialists, led by Pippo and Josh. So it’s just an exciting goal. Let’s go for it, start off with a bang, do our best, and then we’ll see what happens next.”

In preparation for the Tour, Netcompany INEOS continued to train for the discipline at the Barcelona circuit. “We’ve been working on it a lot lately, and we’ve also reviewed the videos from our training sessions a year ago. We’ve done more team time trial training this year; we’ve had sessions on the circuit and we’ve gone over everything thoroughly.”

"So I think it's mainly about the time we've spent together drafting off each other and the time we've devoted to that specific type of effort, as well as the equipment and things like that. "That’s the most important thing we’ve improved: the time we’ve put into it," said Thomas, who isn’t revealing his hand yet on how they plan to approach it.

"Of course, there’s been a lot of thought and discussion about what the best strategy is. If you work backward from the finish, you do indeed need a finisher who can climb that final ascent quickly, after the first twenty minutes," the Welshman reveals. With Godon, the team has a puncher who has proven in the Tour of Catalonia that he can climb Montjuic quickly, but Bernal, Vauquelin, and perhaps even Ganna also have an uphill sprint in them. Arensman is generally less explosive.

"I don't think this is the right time to go into the finer details of our strategy, but it is something we've put a lot of energy into," Thomas says, keeping his cards close to his chest for now. "We have a lot of bright minds contributing their insights, data, and ideas."

"In addition, from a coaching perspective, we assess how the riders are doing, and of course there’s input from the team directors and the actual experience of riding the course. We combine all of that to arrive at the ideal strategy. But as we all know, things never go exactly according to plan. I think one of our real strengths is that the guys at the starting line know how to ride a team time trial and can adapt as they go. No matter what happens, it will never be perfect, but we have our ideal strategy, and that’s where we’ll start.”

What does Netcompany INEOS hope to achieve in the remainder of the Tour? “We want to give the guys the freedom to show what they’re made of, just ride their hearts out, and enjoy themselves. We really want to make an impact in the race and make things happen, instead of just waiting around and letting things unfold. We’re all aware of the dominance of a few riders, but we’re still super motivated to see what we can do,” he says, referring to Tadej Pogacar.

"The general classification isn't the only focus right now, although it has been for this team for a number of years," said Thomas, who, incidentally, still hasn't ruled out a podium finish. "Besides, there are countless ways to race for the general classification."

"You can get bogged down in it, just follow along, and lose a little time every day, or you can just take a bit more of a risk, go after it, and aim for stage wins. You’ve seen it happen before—riders moving up through a breakaway or whatever. But the mindset now is simply: let’s get out there, race, and enjoy it,” Thomas concludes. Starting from day one, that is.