Josh Tarling celebrates his stage win at the Giro d’Italia. Photo courtesy of SWpix.

Late last year, we issued an 11-point to-do list for the Ineos Grenadiers management.

The tasks ranged from signing a sprinter and establishing a U23 team to clarifying futures for Tom Pidcock and Geraint Thomas and strengthening a GC plan beyond Egan Bernal.

It’s fair to say the results have varied: the team’s CEO, John Allert, has made several improvements in key areas but still requires further work in others. Here, we revisit the list and assess the performances of Allert and, now, Dave Brailsford following his return to the team this summer.

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Ineos Grenadiers were crying out for a sprinter at the end of 2024. Their win-rate had fallen to their worst ever tally of just 14 victories, and while they were misfiring in other key areas, their lack of sprinting prowess was a major concern for a team that could no longer regard itself as a front-runner for Grand Tours. Having missed the chance to sign Kaden Groves mid-way through the year, the team looked destined to go into this season without a bunch sprinter. However, in late January, they picked up Caleb Ewan after the Australian was deemed surplus to requirements at Jayco AlUla.

This was a marriage of convenience, as we noted at the time, with Ewan needing to rebuild his career and Ineos simply requiring someone to complete their hard work in flat races. It wasn’t the most exciting move, but it made sense, and the early signs were promising, with Ewan winning his first race back on stage 1 of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali and then backing that up with a WorldTour victory on stage 2 of the Itzulia Basque Country. It looked as though Allert had pulled off a real coup.

Then Ewan pulled the plug, and he retired a few weeks later. It was a fairytale ending for the rider in many ways, but with that, Ineos was back to square one. Ben Turner and Sam Watson showed their class at times, but Ineos still needs that quick finisher to see them through until their GC structure is back on track.

One can understand why they went in for Olav Kooij in the spring, and when he decided to sign for Decathlon on a three-year deal, the British team turned their attention to Sam Welsford. Terms were agreed, but as it stands, and according to our last information, the sprinter who was on around 300,000 Euros at Red Bull is still waiting for his contract to land. The move looks and feels totally off at this stage.

At some point, someone from Ineos will have to explain how another Carlos Verona situation happened, but as it stands, they’ll go into next season without an A or B-level sprinter. That’s probably fine if they can get more from other departments, but perhaps Allert/Brailsford have one more trick up their sleeves. Next year, Groves is back on the market, and a genuine conversation needs to take place within the recruitment team because he still looks like a perfect signing.

On 12 November 2024, we wrote that the team’s turbulent relationship with Pidcock needed to be resolved , and on 6 December, we announced that a three-year contract between the rider and Q36.5 had been signed. In that sense, clarity prevailed.