Before UAE Team Emirates-XRG were recording unprecedented numbers of wins, Team Sky were the team that everyone saw as having an iron grip on the sport of cycling. The truth is, they didn't have anywhere near as much dominance as a team like UAE – their success centred mainly on the Tour de France – but in a time where different riders winning the biggest races was still normal, it felt like a tight hold.
After Chris Froome suffered career-altering injuries in a crash and COVID-19 permanently shifted the dynamics in pro cycling, that status changed, with Sky transitioning into Ineos Grenadiers, and other teams overtaking them as the sport's dominant forces. Geraint Thomas got older, Egan Bernal had his own struggles and didn't quite emerge as the Grand Tour successor Ineos hoped him to be after his major crash in 2022, and they lost out on signing any rider with the moniker of 'the next Tadej Pogačar'.
Of course, we can and naturally will hold them to higher standards because of what they once achieved, but we should also be fair – it wasn't truly a riches to rags story.
Their successes have come in different places. They have taken plenty of individual wins, Filippo Ganna has become one of the world's best time trialists, they've stayed true to their roots and developed some very strong young British riders, and they even made a successful foray into mountain biking with Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.
And that's all good in its own way. But the team themselves are clear that that's not enough – not for the people involved, nor for their rich and ambitious backers. Newly-appointed Director of Racing Geraint Thomas said as much, affirming that "it's no secret, the big goal is winning the Tour again."
Reuniting the old guard?
So, what are Ineos Grenadiers doing to achieve that goal, to move forward and match the teams that have superseded them in recent years? Well, they're not particularly moving forward at all – instead, they've looked to the past to rediscover that secret to success.
The first throwback to the glory days came when Sir Dave Brailsford returned to everyday involvement with the team. That was made public just before the Tour, after the former team principal had stepped away from the cycling team to head up the wider Ineos Sport.
Right now, it's not entirely clear what Dave Brailsford's exact role is. He doesn't have a title on the team's website – he's not even listed as a staff member – and our request for the team to clarify his title was answered with 'Sir Dave Brailsford', but we don't think 'Head of Knighthood' is his role. But whatever the specifics, it's clear that he's strongly involved in the day-to-day, with his words quoted in press releases about new riders, whilst we haven't heard from supposed CEO John Allert in weeks.
Dave Brailsford was the mastermind behind Team Sky's best years, and his leadership style – though sometimes controversial – clearly worked, so it's not hard to work out why the team wanted to bring him back. (A more cynical take might draw a link between the timing of Brailsford's return and the emergence of questions around the team's head carer's links to a doping case, which happened under his reign, but that's a whole different story.)
But the question is: will what worked then work now? In a few short years, cycling has changed a lot; new methods and tactics have become the norm, and riders have become stronger. Team Sky's at-the-time forward-thinking approaches to marginal gains and mountain trains just don't move the dial anymore.
And Brailsford isn't the only member of the old guard that the team has brought back. Bringing in Geraint Thomas as the Director of Racing was a bold move. Everyone expected Thomas to remain involved with the team, and he is a deeply respected and intelligent figure, but Director of Racing is a bigger role than many were anticipating, particularly when he's never even spent a day as a DS. It may be that the role is a misnomer, and Brailsford will rule from above and delegate less than his predecessors, but still, it's a sign of the team prioritising significant roles for loyalists, rather than bringing in a fresh approach.
Alongside Thomas, the team have also recruited Daryl Impey and Elia Viviani as sports directors. Viviani rode for Sky during their dominant days, and Impey's connection goes even further back, riding with Thomas and Chris Froome on Barloworld. So whilst Impey is an experienced and respected DS – Viviani is only newly retired – this again isn't a case of trying to move forward with new and different ideas. It's almost nostalgic, bringing together people who embodied Sky's approach in 2016 and hoping they can work some magic in 2026 too.
I can understand the motivation, but I'm not sure it's going to work in a sport as fast-moving as cycling. The likes of Brailsford, Thomas and Impey must be very, very careful not to try and replicate the past, but to use their brains to bring their expertise and innovation up to date.
Rider roster tells a slightly better story
In terms of their rider recruitment, Ineos have been more progressive and innovative, but only to an extent. They've brought on some really exciting riders in Dorian Godon and Kévin Vauquelin, the latter growing into a serious Tour de France contender, and a clear move away from the past, where Ineos having multiple French riders on their roster felt like an impossibility. They've also brought on some younger talent to develop, and look set to launch an under-23 team, albeit several seasons later than all their key rivals. It's something, at least, and a progression from a few years ago.
But they've also made some fairly uninspiring signings and extensions. Jack Haig is a rider who was good in Grand Tours five years ago, less so the contemporary kind. They've kept on riders like Ben Swift, who again is a team loyalist but maybe not core to winning the Tour again. They've also signed Sam Welsford, a rider who was left behind when his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team wanted to move forward. I'm glad for him that he has a home, but is he going to help Ineos win a Grand Tour?
Where they might strike gold, if they manage to pull it off, is with the much-rumoured arrival of Oscar Onley. We still don't know if this deal will happen – though we understand it has been very close to completion – but signing Onley from Picnic PostNL would be a coup for Ineos. He's a young Brit who is provably strong in the Tour de France, which harks back to the team's core identity, but he's also spent all his development at a different team, growing up in a different kind of cycling, so he's not wedded to any old way of doing things. In fact, he really only knows how to race the Tour in the context of Pogačar and Vingegaard, which is what Ineos need to work out how to do, too.
It's clear that Ineos Grenadiers are trying very hard to shake things up and return to the top rung of the sport, but by looking to the past rather than the future to make that shake-up, there is a risk that they'll just do things the way they did them 10 years ago. That might have worked then, but it's not going to work now. If the team is to succeed, they need the likes of Brailsford, Thomas and others not to try to replicate the past, but to learn from it – bring forward things that are applicable today, and quickly move on from the things that aren't.
Cycling has changed enormously in the past five years, and that's part of the reason why Ineos Grenadiers slipped down the pecking order: because they didn't change fast enough with it. Good recruitment and good management won't be enough if they're not fully committed to speeding forward – the team needs to take the expertise and talent they have on their books for 2026 and not count on the success to come naturally, but to harness those strengths to drive the team into its next era.
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