{"id":403030,"date":"2026-01-11T18:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/403030\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T18:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:09:08","slug":"the-best-off-season-ineos-have-had-in-a-long-time-bob-roll-van-garderen-see-plenty-of-positives-in-early-days-of-the-geraint-thomas-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/403030\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe best off-season INEOS have had in a long time\u201d \u2013 Bob Roll & Van Garderen see plenty of positives in early days of the Geraint Thomas era"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThat outside assessment lands at a moment when INEOS are also undergoing their biggest internal shift in years. Geraint Thomas<\/a> has stepped off the bike and into the role of Director of Racing<\/a>, tasked with rebuilding a winning culture and dragging the team back towards the standards that defined their 2010s dominance.Roll and Van Garderen see a reset taking shapeDiscussing the transfer market and team moves, Roll pointed first to INEOS. \u201cAnother really interesting transfer is Oscar Onley<\/a> going to INEOS,\u201d he said. \u201cDo you think this is going to be the catalyst to get INEOS back into that Grand Tour conversation, with Kevin Vauquelin<\/a> as well? Because that could be, honestly, the best off-season INEOS have had in a long time.\u201dVan Garderen shared that view. \u201cI really think they just thrust themselves back into the conversation with Oscar Onley<\/a> and Kevin Vauquelin<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cOnley is so young. He was right there in the white jersey conversation with Florian Lipowitz last year. He just had a phenomenal season, so he\u2019s only going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

For van Garderen, the changes were not about one headline signing, but about a broader sense that INEOS are no longer drifting.<\/p>\n

\"OscarOnley\"\/<\/p>\n

Oscar Onely joins as arguably INEOS’ biggest transfer of the decade<\/p>\n

Measuring success again<\/p>\n

Roll then turned to the bigger question of what success should look like for a team that once defined the sport. \u201cI\u2019ve been a little disappointed and critical of INEOS\u2019 results based on their budget,\u201d he said, before noting that Thomas is now part of management. \u201cIt seems like Geraint has already made some very clever moves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Garderen expanded on why Thomas\u2019 presence could matter. \u201cImagine Geraint Thomas<\/a> sitting in the living room of some young kid coming out of the under-23s or the juniors, sipping the mum\u2019s coffee, eating their pies, saying \u2018we\u2019re interested in your boy\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cDo you think that kid or those parents are going to say no?\u201dHe believes Thomas\u2019 reputation and relationships will help bring talent through the door. \u201cI\u2019m envisioning some serious talent coming to INEOS because of the role Geraint Thomas<\/a> just took over,\u201d he said.When Roll asked how INEOS should be judged next season, van Garderen set clear benchmarks. \u201cI\u2019d like to see, at minimum, a podium at the Tour, and I think your best bet is Oscar Onley<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got Bernal, a former Tour winner. He\u2019s coming back into decent form, not at his old level, but he\u2019s solid support. They\u2019ve got Kevin Vauquelin<\/a>. I\u2019d like to see a Tour podium, a Monument win, and maybe an outside shot at one of the other Grand Tours. That\u2019s the standard we should hold INEOS to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roll was more cautious. \u201cI honestly don\u2019t see a guy winning a Grand Tour on the INEOS roster right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s fair,\u201d van Garderen replied. \u201cOscar Onley is the man for the Tour, but it would be tough for someone that young to back it up at the Vuelta or do the Giro. Carlos Rodriguez, I\u2019ve been a little underwhelmed. After that Tour where he won a stage and finished around third or fourth, I expected him to kick on more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas sets the direction<\/p>\n

While Roll and van Garderen were reacting from the outside, the tone of their discussion closely matches what Thomas himself has said since taking up his new role.<\/p>\n

The 2018 Tour de France<\/a> winner has made clear that his job is not about slow, vague rebuilding. He has spoken openly about wanting to bring back the competitive edge that once defined Team Sky and early INEOS, with a clear target pinned to the wall: winning the Tour again.<\/p>\n

Thomas has rejected the idea that INEOS can hide behind the word \u201ctransition\u201d. \u201cTransition\u2019s over now, mate,\u201d he has said of the team\u2019s recent years. \u201cThis is where we\u2019re going. This is what we\u2019re doing. There\u2019s no more \u2018we\u2019re in transition\u2019 \u2013 that becomes an excuse for not performing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also talked about recreating the internal competition that once existed between riders like himself and Chris Froome, and about applying the same pressure and performance standards to staff as well as riders.<\/p>\n

For Thomas, the current dominance of Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates – XRG is not a reason to lower ambition, but the benchmark INEOS must work towards. \u201cRight now UAE are the top team,\u201d he has said. \u201cBut for me, this is the start now. We\u2019re heading there. That\u2019s the goal and this is how we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early signs of change<\/p>\n

What Roll and van Garderen are reacting to is not a finished product, but the first visible signs of that shift.<\/p>\n

New signings like Onley and Vauquelin give the team fresh options. Thomas\u2019 move into management gives those changes a clear face and voice. And, perhaps most importantly, the messaging coming out of INEOS has changed from explaining decline to demanding progress.<\/p>\n

That is why Roll\u2019s line landed so sharply. Calling it \u201cthe best off-season INEOS have had in a long time\u201d is not about crowning them champions again. It is about recognising momentum after years of drift.<\/p>\n

Whether that momentum turns into results will only be answered on the road. But for the first time in several seasons, the conversation around INEOS is no longer about what they have lost.<\/p>\n

It is about what they might finally be building again.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That outside assessment lands at a moment when INEOS are also undergoing their biggest internal shift in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,16057,59639,166776,133059,82,169880,636],"class_list":["post-403030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-geraint-thomas","tag-ineos-grenadiers","tag-kevin-vauquelin","tag-oscar-onley","tag-sports","tag-tejay-van-garderen","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}