2025 Preview #15 – INEOS Grenadiers

2024, below their standards

The 2024 season was disappointing for INEOS Grenadiers, compared to what they have been used to in the past. Indeed, the British team only raised their arms 14 times, the worst total since the creation of the team in 2010.

One of the only satisfactions of last season was the young Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez, who won his first World Tour stage race at the Tour de Romandie. At only 23 years old, Rodriguez also finished in the top 10 at the Tour de France and La Vuelta and in the top 5 at the Dauphiné and Itzulia Basque Country, enjoying the best season of his career and proving himself as the main leader of the British team last season.

INEOS also scored twice at the Giro d’Italia with Jhonathan Narvaez beating Pogačar on the first stage while Filippo Ganna was the strongest in the individual time trial at Desenzano del Garda. The Italian Grand Tour also saw the eternal Geraint Thomas finishing third at 38 years old, proving that he can still perform well in the main objective of his season.

However, the other leaders of the British team had a more difficult year. Indeed, Egan Bernal finished in the top 5 at the Volta a Catalunya and the Tour de Suisse but was invisible during the Tour de France, where he had ambitions, as did Tom Pidcock. The rider from Leeds managed to win the Amstel Gold Race but couldn’t prove to his team that he had the shoulders to be a leader at the biggest race in the world. INEOS Grenadiers finished the season in 7^th place in the UCI Ranking, three places behind their position of 2023.

A timid transfer window

After a disappointing season, the transfer window of INEOS Grenadiers was key in order to set the tone for the year to come. However, the main saga of the winter for the British team was the departure of Tom Pidcock, who broke his contract with the team to join Q36.5. Among the five recruitments made by INEOS’s staff, a nice mix of youth and experience could be beneficial for the British team, despite the absence of a world class leader.

The most experienced rider of the list is Bob Jungels. Since leaving Deceuninck Quick-Step in 2020, the rider from Luxembourg has had difficulties to rising back to his best level, despite a win in Chatel during the Tour de France 2022. With INEOS, Jungels will hope to give a new boost to his career, at 32 years old. This good all-rounder’s main achievement is obviously his triumph at Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2018, an exploit that the former rider of BORA-hansgrohe did not manage to repeat. Over the past few years, Jungels transformed into a lieutenant for his leaders, mainly in the mountains, and that will surely be one of the main roles of the former Luxembourgish champion with his new team.

Alongside Jungels, two other riders will reinforce the climbing team of INEOS Grenadiers. The first is Lucas Hamilton. At 28 years old, the Australian climber will discover a new environment for the first time in his career, after spending all of his professional years with the GreenEdge structure. Like Jungels, Hamilton has encountered difficulties in recent seasons, especially in 2024 where he was invisible throughout the year. His new teammate Victor Langelotti also spent the entirety of his career with a single team, but has followed a much more unique path. Indeed, he started riding at the professional level at 23 years old with Burgos-BH, a team that he stayed with since. In the past two seasons, he proved his excellent climbing abilities at several big races such as Itzulia Basque Country, where he finished in fourteenth overall. In 2025, Langelotti will write history for his country, as he will be the first ever rider from Monaco to ride at World Tour level.

Finally, INEOS Grenadiers decided to improve their one-day squad with two young and promising riders. First of all, Axel Laurance proved his excellent puncheur abilities in 2024, with a win during the Volta a Catalunya but also by adding the general classification of the Tour of Norway to his trophy cabinet. At 23 years old, the Frenchman could be a substitute for Tom Pidcock for the Ardennes Classics in his new team in the future, maybe even as soon as 2025. For the Flanders Classics, the Brit Sam Watson was chosen by the INEOS staff. The 23-year-old was part of the incredible next gen promotion of Groupama-FDJ two years ago and confirmed his potential last year by raising his arms in Thuin during the Tour de Wallonie.

A challenge in the mountains

Historically, INEOS Grenadiers have had one of the greatest mountains teams in the history of cycling, especially under its former name Team Sky. The successes of Bradley Wiggins, Christopher Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal at the Tour de France represent the history of the British team. In recent years, other teams started to come back to INEOS, and John Allert’s team is not the dominant force it once was, despite the presence of former Grand Tour winners Thomas and Bernal. Indeed, the Welsh rider’s best years are behind him and the Eagle of Zipaquira has lacked consistency since his terrible accident.

INEOS Grenadiers' primary challenge is to build a new dynasty of mountains leaders in order to retain their place as one of the best teams in the peloton when the road rises. Last season, the Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez assumed the number one role for the British team, confirming the expectations that were placed on him throughout the year. The 23-year-old triumphed for the first time in a one-week World Tour race as he added the Tour of Romandie to his trophy cabinet. In the Grand Tours however, despite some very solid results with top tens overall at the Tour de France and La Vuelta, the good results of the native of Almunecar in Andalucia are still far from the higher echelons of those who came before. Rodriguez, who has extended his contract until 2027, is still very young and has time to improve in order to play for the win at Grand Tours, but the absence of competition inside his own team could cost the former Spanish Champion.

As Rodriguez should be on line once again for the Tour de France and La Vuelta, Geraint Thomas could very well take the role of leader at the Giro, as he did in the past two years. The Welsh rider, former winner of the Tour de France, has proven that he is still able to compete among the best during three weeks. However, the native of Cardiff will turn 39 in May and has already announced the end of his career at the end of 2025. It will be interesting to see how one of the last survivors of the legendary Sky team will perform this year and in which state of mind he will take on the races. With his experience, he could be a very good road captain, as he was at the latest Tour de France, but the veteran may also want to shine among the best climbers of the planet, for his last dance.

The biggest mystery of the INEOS Grenadiers’ mountain squad last season was Egan Bernal. After a complicated 2023 season, the Colombian came back with better legs in 2024, recording good results during one-week World Tour races. Some results such as a third place at the Volta a Catalunya or a fourth at the Tour de Suisse gave hope to all of his fans for the Tour de France, but unfortunately the Eagle of Zipaquira was not able to influence the race. Instead, he helped his teammate Rodriguez for the general classification, finishing himself an anonymous 29^th in Nice. The native of Bogota, who turned 28 a few days ago, will be aiming for the Giro in 2025, with the objective of bringing home the Trofeo Senza Fine for a second time, after 2021. It would be a great news for INEOS and more generally for the cycling world to see Bernal return to his best level and maybe even in pink come May.

Some of the best time triallists on the planet

It is a shame for INEOS Grenadiers that the team time trial is no longer part of the World Championships, because the British team would undeniably be one of the greatest favourites of the exercise. The strength of these riders is not only their excellent time trialling ability, they are also essential in the collective, in the Classics or at Grand Tours.

With seven stage victories at his national Grand Tour, Filippo Ganna is one of the highest scoring non-sprinters at the Giro in the past few years. These successes are mainly due to his amazing strength in the individual time trial effort, a discipline where he has already been crowned world champion twice. If six of the seven “Pippo” wins at the Giro came from ITTs, the native of Verbania also showed his ability to perform in a packed peloton as a strong all-round rider. At the Classics for example, Ganna has already showed that he is able to compete with the best, with a second place at Milano-Sanremo and a sixth place at Paris-Roubaix. Despite his larger stature, by comparison with the climbers, the ITT silver medalist at the Paris Olympics can also climb quite well, as proven by his win at the general classification of the Tour of San Juan in 2023, ahead of riders like Sergio Higuita and Einer Rubio. For 2025, Filippo Ganna has planned to return to Paris-Roubaix, hoping to compete with the best on the cobbles of Northern France. One of his main objectives will also be to conquer the rainbow jersey in the ITT once again, a title that he has not won since 2021.

Another extremely talented time trialist at INEOS is Joshua Tarling. The British rider revealed himself to the world when he triumphed at the European Championships in the discipline in 2023, at only 19 years of age. Last season, the native of Aberaeron confirmed that he was one of the best in the exercise despite his relative youth, finishing just off the podium at both the Olympic Games and the World Championships. Tarling also showed promise on the cobbles, with a top ten finish at the most recent Dwars door Vlaanderen.

With these two riders, INEOS Grenadiers have the present and the future of the time trial in the peloton. If the British team could not attract Remco Evenepoel, the World champion of the exercise, it is maybe the most stacked in the peloton in terms of time trialists, with the addition of the former World champion Tobias Foss and of riders such as Magnus Sheffield and Thymen Arensman.

Enjoyed this? Check out our previous men's WT previews:

Alpecin-Deceuninck, Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Astana Qazaqstan, Bahrain-Victorious, Cofidis, Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, EF Education-EasyPost, Groupama-FDJ