{"id":476592,"date":"2026-02-15T14:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T14:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/476592\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T14:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T14:01:12","slug":"ineos-grenadiers-praise-geraint-thomas-transition-to-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/476592\/","title":{"rendered":"INEOS Grenadiers praise Geraint Thomas&#8217; transition to management"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Dave Brailsford returned to a more hands-on role with the team in 2025, and his influence remains the central pillar of the project. For Erviti, Brailsford is the engine behind the daily operation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He has a lot of influence on this team and is a leader of the project,&#8221; Erviti said. &#8220;He is the person who makes us give the best of ourselves and the one who really pushes. His return has been very positive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Erviti believes that while the &#8220;DNA&#8221; of INEOS remains consistent, the team needs to evolve to keep up with modern cycling. &#8220;I consider that the DNA is not lost, but, at the same time, aspects can be modernized and things can be changed,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;It is a constant process and it is clear that we have to update ourselves and take a step further in certain things. We are working on it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The other major storyline for 2026 is the transition of Geraint Thomas. <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/cycling\/geraint-thomas-is-back-tour-de-france-champion-officially-returns-to-ineos-grenadiers-as-new-director-of-racing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">After hanging up his wheels, the Tour de France winner has stayed with the team as a Race Director<\/a>. &#8220;The truth is that I am very happy with the work he is doing,&#8221; Erviti said. &#8220;Despite the greatness he may have had as a rider, he is a very normal person who makes it easy to work with him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thomas is now responsible for tactics and maintaining the team&#8217;s identity from the car. &#8220;He is always looking out for the team culture and tactical aspects. He does a good job that, little by little, will bear fruit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The roster has also seen significant turnover. The team has brought in six new riders, focusing heavily on youth. &#8220;They are very interesting riders for this season and also for a long-term project,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They are young cyclists who will continue to grow, with a very good perspective, and with whom we can work for a longer period.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, this youth movement coincided with the departure of experienced Spanish veterans Jonathan Castroviejo and Omar Fraile. Erviti insisted there was no bad blood in their exit. &#8220;In this case, everything has been very quiet because the decision was made by them,&#8221; Erviti clarified. &#8220;They have been great riders, with the ability to perform well until the end of their careers&#8230; I am very grateful for all their effort.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/geraint-thomas-68bdec5259acd.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"Geraint Thomas\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Geraint Thomas retired last year after a highly successful career<\/p>\n<p>The Rodr\u00edguez leaders: Carlos and \u00d3scar<\/p>\n<p>On the racing side, Erviti gave an update on Spanish leader Carlos Rodr\u00edguez. After a solid winter training block in Tenerife, Rodr\u00edguez is ready to start his season. His schedule includes the Tour de la Provence, Paris-Nice, and the Volta a Catalunya.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Carlos is quite well,&#8221; Erviti confirmed. &#8220;He is on the long list of riders for the Tour de France and, possibly, he will also be at La Vuelta. However, this is sport, everything varies&#8230; plans have to be taken with caution.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, the team is dealing with some bad luck elsewhere. \u00d3scar Rodr\u00edguez crashed on New Year&#8217;s Eve and needed surgery. &#8220;He is already doing rehabilitation and taking small steps, but we still cannot announce a return date,&#8221; Erviti admitted. &#8220;The important thing when you are injured is to have peace of mind and do things right, since we cyclists are anxious people.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Dave Brailsford returned to a more hands-on role with the team in 2025, and his influence remains&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,153716,635,138625,16057,193369,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-476592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-carlos-rodriguez","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-dave-brailsford","13":"tag-geraint-thomas","14":"tag-imanol-erviti","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476592","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=476592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}