INEOS Grenadiers: British multi-million dollar squad starts 2024 with striking dichotomy in selection
CyclingSaturday, 02 December 2023 at 11:00
In our year-end WorldTour team series, we have now arrived at the teams with the biggest budgets. INEOS Grenadiers has long been one of the richest teams in the peloton, but was that commensurate with the results in 2023? IDLProcycling set it out!
One-day games 2023: INEOS Grenadiers
Looking at the 2023 one-day races of INEOS Grenadiers, one sees three standouts: Tom Pidcock's victories in Strade Bianche and at the World Mountain Bike Championships and Joshua Tarling's European time trial title in Emmen. Three fine victories achieved by Brits, that will do the team management good.
Pidcock also finished third in the Amstel Gold Race and second in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, while Filippo Ganna finished second in Milan-Sanremo and at the World Time Trial Championships. All performances you can certainly be proud of as a team, especially considering the performances of such aliens as Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel this year.
In the cobbled classics, however, things did not really work out. Ganna finished sixth in Paris-Roubaix and tenth in the E3 Saxo Classic, while Pidcock managed a fifth place in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as his best cobbled result. The Brit has even chosen to forgo those classics - with his weight - next year.
(Grand) rounds 2023: INEOS Grenadiers
Whoever says Sky/INEOS Grenadiers thinks first and foremost of the grand tours. The team was the leader of the Tour de France for many years, but now has to admit that it has been overtaken by other teams. Not that the Tour was such a failure by the way, with a fine fifth place and ditto stage victory for young Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez and another stage victory for Michal Kwiatkowki;
Geraint Thomas almost ensured the team's biggest success at the Giro d'Italia in May, but had to give way to Primoz Roglic on the penultimate day. The Welshman was doing a faultless Tour of Italy, which was partly overshadowed by a heavy fall of co-captain Tao Geoghegan Hart. In the Vuelta, sprint leader Filippo Ganna was the revelation, but that was all.
Other than that, the team was still on the podium in WorldTour races such as the UAE Tour (Luke Plapp), Tirreno-Adriatico (Geoghegan Hart), the Tour of Poland (Kwiatkowski) and Tour of Guangxi (Ethan Hayter), while lower-level tours such as Algarve (Daniel Felipe Martínez), Tour of the Alps (Hart), Norway (Ben Tulett), Austria (Jhonatan Narváez) and Wallonia (Ganna) were still won.
Final grade 2023 INEOS Grenadiers
Not top, but certainly not bad either: that is how we may describe INEOS Grenadiers' 2023. Hence, our (former) editorial board members arrived at an average 6.0 as the final rating for the British formation.
Transfers 2023/2024: INEOS Grenadiers
INEOS Grenadiers has lost a lot of climbing talent this transfer window. With Daniel Felipe Martínez (BORA-hansgrohe), Pavel Sivakov (UAE-Team Emirates), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Ben Tulett (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla), five talented mountain goats are leaving the formation, automatically reducing the big round file a bit.
With Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma), Óscar Rodríguez (Movistar) and Andrew August (juniors), three pawns came in return for the time being. Foss is making the move to his dream team as an ex-world time trial champion, while Rodríguez is likely to be used primarily as a helper. August, in turn, is a very talented, only 18-year-old junior from the United States.
Incoming: Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma), Óscar Rodríguez (Movistar) and Andrew August (juniors)
(Preliminary) outgoing: Daniel Felipe Martínez (BORA-hansgrohe), Pavel Sivakov (UAE-Team Emirates), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Ben Tulett (Visma | Lease a Bike), Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) and Cameron Wurf (unknown)
Ones to watch 2024: INEOS Grenadiers
Many riders may have left, but INEOS Grenadiers still goes into 2024 with a selection brimming with talent. There is a notable gap in the selection: no one on the team is currently between 28 and 32 years old, which is quite interesting. At the lower end of the age range are top riders like Thymen Arensman, Carlos Rodríguez, Tom Pidcock, Leo Hayter and Magnus Sheffield for classification work.
Some of these guys can also compete well in the classics, as can hard riders Filippo Ganna and Joshua Tarling. In addition, Ethan Hayter, Ben Turner, Tobias Foss and Jonathan Narváez are also close to a definitive breakthrough at the age of 24 to 26, so the future certainly still seems bright for INEOS Grenadiers.
(Provisional) selection INEOS Grenadiers 2024
- Thymen Arensman
- Andrew August
- Egan Bernal
- Jonathan Castroviejo
- Laurens De Plus
- Tobias Foss
- Omar Fraile
- Filippo Ganna
- Ethan Hayter
- Leo Hayter
- Kim Heiduk
- Michal Kwiatkowski
- Michael Leonard
- Jhonatan Narváez
- Tom Pidcock
- Salvatore Puccio
- Brandon Rivera
- Carlos Rodriguez
- Oscar Rodriguez
- Luke Rowe
- Magnus Sheffield
- Ben Swift
- Connor Swift
- Joshua Tarling
- Geraint Thomas
- Ben Turner
- Elia Viviani
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Latest Comments
- Van Aert is really handsome. He can influence me all day! Ditto for Philipsen. Why do you think many of us love cycling?: to see heroic attempts at climbing mountains at high altitudes or to watch speedsters sprint for the finish line or to watch a human being ride at break neck speed down a tricky descent? No, it's all about their lean physiques and muscular legs. (apologies for objectifying these dedicated and amazing athletes).BarwonHeadsUp25-10-2024
- It is unfortunate that the author can't feel the joy that Pogacar brings to the sport and his fans who are legion and I for one feel lucky to have watched such a memorable performance and historic season From the Strada until yesterday with multiple wins in stages in both tours and beyond dominance in the World's. He is proud to wear the Rainbow stripes, shows his leadership to protect his fellows and is as courteous and sportsman-like as the sport allows. He goes early to not have to respond to each attack as all the rest would make him do it. Any racer who could would do the same. Don't "grow tired" of greatness as it is always fleeting.ccrider13-10-2024
- What load of rubbish. Pog is likely a once in a generation cyclist, the like of which hasn't been seen since 'the Cannibal '. How many people were complaining that Merckx was making racing predictable? I remember this year's World RR as one of the most exciting I've watched. Mainly BECAUSE Pog was the favourite and launched what everyone thought (Pog included) was a suicidal attack with 80km to go. For the next 2 hours, I was on the edge of my seat thinking "this is too much, even for Pog". Maybe Zonnefeld prefers the snooze-fest that is a bunch sprint? Like most people I know, I can't watch two hours of the bunch riding very fast... I wait for the final 5km and watch just the sprint. In any event, most races are won from a sprint or lone break. What difference does it make who makes the lone break? Ultimately, the other contenders will have to figure out a way to beat Pog. Even if that means collaboration between teams. It's going to be an exciting few seasons, until the next Pog arrives on the scene. If this is boring, heaven knows what exciting looks like!Michael513-10-2024
- This is not a gravel race. UCI fail, from the surface they are on to team tactics. In what country was the first "gravel race" in what country is the most popular gravel race? Go with the race model that created the discipline.
Barnes127411-10-2024 - And don't forget he has now won 4 of the big 10 races (Grand tours, Monuments and WC/OG) in one year with a chance to make that 5. (5 has only been done once before)Joostmehrtens05-10-2024