Geraint Thomas appeared to have a few extra grey hairs as he discussed Netcompany Ineos' Tour de France team selection and their hopes and ambitions. The loss of GC leader Oscar Onley has sparked a long debate about race strategy and some tough selection decisions.
The British super team signed Onley from Picnic PostNL during the winter after he finished fourth overall in the 2025 Tour. He appeared to be gradually building his form during the spring but crashed hard and suffered a "significant shoulder injury" at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
The loss of Onley forced Netcompany to pivot to targeting stage victories, with a good GC result with Egan Bernal, Thymen Arensman and Kévin Vauquelin as a possible consequence.
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Also in the eight-rider roster are Tobias Foss, Filippo Ganna, Dorian Godon, Michal Kwiatkowski and Josh Tarling.
Tarling has apparently recovered from a fractured collarbone at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and will play a role in targeting Saturday's opening team time trial but the roster change in objectives meant that Carlos Rodríguez was left at home.
"From the start of the year he was our GC guy," Thomas said of Onley.
"As soon as that [crash] happened, it was disappointing but you need to dust yourself off and look forward. You can't wallow in what could have been or what should have been. We have to look forward and make our new objectives, a new plan.
"Losing Oscar does change our plans. The GC isn't like a single focus, which for this team it has been for a number of years. But there are numerous ways to race a GC. You can sit in there and you can follow and lose a bit of time every day or you can just throw a bit caution to the wind and go after it and go for stages. We've seen numerous times that guys have also moved up in the GC via breakaways.
"It's a combination of being realistic but also really ambitious and wanting to go after it every day, and really get stuck into the race. We want to give the boys the freedom to express themselves, to race their bikes and enjoy it, and really make things happen, rather than just be sitting back and letting things happen to them."
Thomas will not measure Netcompany's success in stage results, acknowledging that the 2026 Tour is now some kind of 'year zero' as he and team manager Dave Brailsford try to create a new cycle of Tour de France success in the years to come.
"Without sounding a bit wishy washy, I think it's about how the boys race and how they gel and build and work together and look into the future," Thomas said.
"There's a core team here that will continue on. We've got ambitions to win this race in the near future and a lot of these boys are gonna be key to that.
"To stand here and say three stage wins would be a success, would be wrong. Obviously, we'd love to win as much as we can. It's just about how we race, how we represent ourselves."
"When you don't have an out and out favourite for the GC, it definitely means you race differently and that's exciting as well. I think having that freedom gives a lot of motivation to all the boys. We're all just excited about getting going."
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