Netcompany INEOS provide update on future for Egan Bernal: 'He isn’t satisfied with a tenth-place finish'

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Bernal still has a contract with the British team until 2029, which made retirement seem very sudden. “After so many years devoted entirely to cycling, I feel that I’ve given the best years of my life to this sport, both as a cyclist and as a person,” he said in an open Instagram post.

It sounded like he was setting the stage for a farewell, but he clarified things a bit further. “This year, I’ve decided to end my season after the Tour de France. I still have a contract with the team through to the end of 2029, and right now, my plan is to just start again next season.” Whether that feeling will still be the same after a long break remains to be seen.

Dario Cioni, an Italian team director for Netcompany INEOS, provided an update to Bici.pro. “Egan took a break at the end of the season, but he had already ridden the Giro and the Tour, so it’s not something we’ve never seen before,” he said about the Colombian’s break after the Tour de France.

He agrees that Bernal was disappointed with how his season went. “It’s clear that Bernal is a winner: he isn’t satisfied with a tenth-place finish, and rightly so. After the Giro and the Tour, he no longer felt competitive, so he chose to end the season early. But he’ll be racing regularly again in 2027,” Cioni says firmly.

And so we can once again look forward to seeing Bernal riding for Netcompany INEOS. But the team is losing another veteran. Filippo Ganna has left the British team after no fewer than eight years of loyal service. The two-time world time trial champion has signed with Lidl-Trek and will truly be missed by his former team.

That’s what Cioni says, who would have liked to see him stay. “Those are decisions made by the managers, and of course I’m personally disappointed, but they’re team decisions that must be respected. These are matters that should remain between them. I’m an employee of the team, and I accept the decisions. I didn’t find out until during the World Championships, when everything had already been decided.”

Would the team director rather follow his compatriot to the German team? “To be honest, we never talked about it, partly because it happened later in the season and I had already started preparing for 2027,” says Cioni.

Ganna’s departure was offset by no fewer than nine new signings, including Clément Champoussin, Harold Tejada, Michael Valgren, Benjamín Noval, and Riley Sheehan.