In this week’s episode of the Cyclingnews podcast there’s an exclusive interview with Daniel Martin from Israel Start-Up Nation while we also continue our WorldTour report cards with Ineos Grenadiers and ISN under the spotlight.
Ineos won the Giro d’Italia with Tao Geoghegan Hart, bombed at the Tour de France and came second in the Vuelta a España. They won 19 races in total and obviously the standout ride was the Giro, where they bounced back from losing Geraint Thomas to win seven stages wins and the maglia rosa.
They were well below their typical best at the Tour, were forced into late line-up changes before seeing Egan Bernal falter in the mountains. There was a stage win for Michal Kwiatkowski but in the build up to the Tour they were off the pace in races like the Critérium du Dauphiné and their Classics campaign was quiet, even by their standards.
Over at Israel Start-Up Nation the team won two stages in Grand Tours, courtesy of Daniel Martin and Alex Dowsett. They had nine different winners, in fact, and took fourth overall in the Vuelta and while the caliber of their wins wasn’t huge – only two were at WorldTour – the team showed signs of promise and progress.
We analyse both teams’ seasons, before Procycling’s Edward Pickering, who used to be a teacher, hands out grades for each team.
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