The Sky-era dominance is long gone, but INEOS Grenadiers have reinvented themselves in 2025

The Team Sky era is already about five years behind us, and INEOS Grenadiers is still struggling to recreate the dominance of those days. But 2025 felt like a genuine transition year for the British squad, one in which they seem to have rediscovered the way up. IDL Procycling looks back on the season of Thymen Arensman and co.

To be honest, INEOS Grenadiers underdelivered a bit in the classics. Ben Turner was virtually invisible on the cobbles, whereas a few years ago he looked so strong there. Josh Tarling was unable to back up his impressive spring of 2024, and Magnus Sheffield never really got involved in the Ardennes. Other names, however, did manage to convince.

Michal Kwiatkowski took a somewhat surprising win very early in the season at the Clásica Jaén, proving the Pole is far from finished at the top level. Axel Laurance rode to an excellent eighth place in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, while Sam Watson finished fifth in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. But it was Filippo Ganna who really carried the team through the spring.

The Italian was absolutely immense. In Milan–San Remo he helped create one of the most spectacular editions ever, ultimately taking silver behind Mathieu van der Poel and ahead of Tadej Pogacar. A week later he again had to let the Dutchman go, but this time he still claimed third place in the E3 Saxo Classic. After that he finished eighth in the Tour of Flanders and thirteenth in Paris–Roubaix. Without the Italian powerhouse, things looked a lot less rosy for INEOS.

The days when INEOS Grenadiers/Team Sky seemed to win almost every Grand Tour are long gone. The team no longer has an obvious overall favorite on the books, and that showed in 2025: they recorded just one top-10 finish in the Grand Tours. Only Egan Bernal, seventh in the Giro d’Italia, managed to mix it with the very best climbers.

The team had promised to race differently. Without the absolute top GC riders, you can’t just sit back and wait—you have to race aggressively if you want success. And the Grenadiers certainly did that. It paid off with a total of six stage wins across the Grand Tours. Josh Tarling and Filippo Ganna won time trials in both the Giro and the Vuelta a España. Ben Turner stunned Jasper Philipsen in a sprint in Spain, and Egan Bernal also took a wild stage win there.

Even so, it was Thymen Arensman who delivered the most memorable victories. His two stage wins at the Tour de France will stay in the minds of Dutch cycling fans for a long time—especially because he dropped both Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard to do it. Beyond the three Grand Tours, the British squad also enjoyed plenty of success: they took stages in almost every WorldTour stage race, and they celebrated regularly at 1.Pro, 1.1 and 2.1 level as well.

It may still be a long way from the dominant image we associate with the Team Sky years, but the path back up has been found at INEOS Grenadiers. With several spectacular victories, the team has shown itself once again at the very highest level, and their attacking style of racing is winning fans. All in all, the (former) editorial team of In de Leiderstrui lands on a solid 7 out of 10 for their 2025 season.

Last year, INEOS Grenadiers already had to say goodbye to some heavy hitters, but this year there’s another sizeable exodus at the British team. No fewer than five riders retired from professional cycling: Geraint Thomas, Caleb Ewan, Jonathan Castroviejo, Omar Fraile and Salvatore Puccio all called time on their careers. Especially the farewell of “G” will hurt: he was the last of a generation. Now others will have to step up.

On top of that, Michael Leonard chose a new adventure with EF Education–EasyPost, and a handful of riders still don’t know where they’ll end up next. The team has, however, reeled in four intriguing names. The Scandinavian enclave has been strengthened by top talent Theodor Storm and Arkéa breakaway specialist Embret Svestad-Bårdseng, but the arrivals of Kévin Vauquelin and Dorian Godon really catch the eye. The latter is French national champion and took no fewer than six wins this year.

Vauquelin’s signing, though, is by far the biggest transfer. The Frenchman left the collapsing Arkéa–B&B Hotels set-up behind after a wonder season: he won Étoile de Bessèges, finished second in La Flèche Wallonne and second in the Tour de Suisse. Then he lit up the Tour de France, ending as best French rider with seventh place in Paris. INEOS Grenadiers has a diamond in its hands once again.

Transfers in: Kévin Vauquelin, Embret Svestad-Bardseng (Both Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Dorian Godon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Theodor Storm (Lotto Kern-Haus PSD Bank)

Transfers out: Michael Leonard (EF Education - EasyPost), Geraint Thomas, Caleb Ewan, Jonathan Castroviejo, Omar Fraile, Salvatore Puccio (all retired), Michal Kwiatkowski, Ben Swift, Lucas Hamilton, Brandon Smith Rivera and Kim Heiduk (unknown)

There is a huge amount of potential in this British WorldTour squad. With young stars like Tarling and Sheffield, plus emerging names such as Peter Øxenberg, Storm, Artem Shmidt and Andrew August, there are plenty of riders hoping to take a big step forward in the new season. And with Kévin Vauquelin, they now have a new leader with whom they want to shine both in the Grand Tours and in the Ardennes.

At the same time, the hope is that the established names will do a bit better. Egan Bernal enjoyed a fine year, but he still hasn’t fully rejoined the absolute elite. Carlos Rodríguez was practically invisible: the Spaniard is only 24 and has plenty of quality, but it simply never came out in 2025. Thymen Arensman, on the other hand, will want to continue his upward trend and become an undisputed leader within INEOS Grenadiers—especially now that Thomas has retired.

And then there’s the classics core of Turner, Watson, Laurance, Godon and Ganna. Suddenly, the team has a superb line-up for the spring races, particularly on the cobbles. Ganna, meanwhile, is hoping to finally win a Monument. Whether he will ever again seriously threaten Remco Evenepoel in time trials is up for debate, but his new focus might offer even more potential.