{"id":332748,"date":"2025-12-07T12:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T12:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332748\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T12:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T12:32:14","slug":"onleys-ineos-move-makes-sense-for-both-parties-argues-bruyneel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332748\/","title":{"rendered":"Onley&#8217;s INEOS move &#8216;makes sense for both parties,&#8217; argues Bruyneel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The transfer market is almost closed, though a few riders are still finding new teams. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/ineos-grenadiers\" title=\"INEOS Grenadiers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">INEOS Grenadiers<\/a> may yet have one major move up their sleeve: the British squad are reportedly interested in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/oscar-onley\" title=\"Oscar Onley\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar Onley<\/a>. Could they secure the homegrown star they\u2019ve been looking for? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/johan-bruyneel\" title=\"Johan Bruyneel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Johan Bruyneel<\/a> thinks it\u2019s possible, though he also wonders what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/picnic-postnl\" title=\"Picnic PostNL\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Picnic PostNL<\/a> will do.Earlier this year, Onley had already been linked with a transfer, but the story has resurfaced. &#8220;I&#8217;ve read some speculations,&#8221; Bruyneel said on <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/2NhXUWkHb6vc9Vns5Oe8HW?trackId=2om87zUjvUhR1unHdqLo1Z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Move<\/a> podcast. &#8220;It&#8217;s not official, but it would make sense to me. The question is: It&#8217;s the 5th of December. To see that happening now would be unique, but not impossible. For INEOS and Oscar, it would make sense.&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/derek-gee\" title=\"Derek Gee\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Derek Gee<\/a>, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cycling\/derek-gee-hits-back-hard-at-israel-premier-tech-after-torn-up-contract-30-million-euros-damages-claim\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dramatically split from his team<\/a> this year, is also considered a leading candidate. But the Belgian analyst sees limitations. &#8220;Derek Gee has not yet proven that he is a solid leader that a team can build their whole program around, and neither has Onley. I think he has been more consistent than Gee, but they are both podium candidates in Grand Tours, not candidate winners in today&#8217;s cycling. But there aren&#8217;t many that are available.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Onley surprised many by finishing fourth in this year\u2019s Tour de France, but he may still be a diamond in the rough. &#8220;is he going to perform at the same level when he is not with Picnic PostNL? I would guess yes, he is a good rider,&#8221; Bruyneel analyzed. &#8220;As for INEOS: they kind of need a British top rider. And it&#8217;s the only one available right now. The Yates brothers are set, and Adam has been at INEOS before.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/oscar-onley-6934363d9410a.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"oscar-onley\"\/>Bruyneel praises Spekenbrink, but questions transfers<\/p>\n<p>But would Picnic PostNL really let the Scot go? It is certainly possible, Bruyneel argues, because Dutch team boss Iwan Spekenbrink has done it before. &#8220;I would call him the Wheeler Dealer in professional cycling: it has happened a lot that riders from his team that had an existing contract, left. Tom Dumoulin, Marc Hirschi, Marcel Kittel&#8230;. In that point of view, he has been a very smart business decision maker. He caught a lot of money for letting riders go that still had a running contract.\u00a0That is another way of financing the team &#8211; or his own pocket.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bruyneel, however, does not support this approach. The downside, he says, is that it becomes difficult to build a true team. &#8220;I have struggled to understand: if you have these stars riders, and you are getting these sponsors on board like DSM, firmenich and you name it&#8230; I don&#8217;t know how he can justify these departures to his sponsors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maybe he makes a deal with the sponsors that they&#8217;ll have to pay less,&#8221; he speculates. &#8220;But your team is getting weaker and weaker. And it&#8217;s safe to say: that team is one of the weakest, if not the weakest in the WorldTour.&#8221;This year the team finished 17th in the WorldTour rankings, but it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indeleiderstrui.nl\/wielrennen\/een-hele-dikke-voldoende-maar-bij-picnic-postnl-zal-de-afhankelijkheid-van-onley-toch-ook-wel-wat-zorgen-oproepen\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">won only four times<\/a> &#8211; with their standout performance coming at the Tour de France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The transfer market is almost closed, though a few riders are still finding new teams. But INEOS Grenadiers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,59441,66980,172758,57600,186039,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-332748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-derek-gee","12":"tag-ineos-grenadiers","13":"tag-johan-bruyneel","14":"tag-oscar-onley","15":"tag-picnic-postnl","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}