‘A mean winning machine’ – Netcompany-Ineos insist AI will win them the Tour de France in five years, but does it just come down to cash?

“We will win the Tour de France within the next five years,” would be an ambitious statement for anyone not called Tadej Pogačar or UAE Team Emirates-XRG to make in 2026, but it was among the striking words uttered by the CEO of Ineos’ new co-title sponsor on Tuesday.

His name is Andrej Rogaczewski, co-founder and CEO of Netcompany, a rapidly growing AI technology leader in Europe that has entered cycling with big money – reportedly €100 million over five years – and grand ambitions to both optimise Jim Ratcliffe’s British team and return them to former yellow jersey-winning glory.

Sir Dave Brailsford is also back at the helm and finally back with a media-facing job title at the cycling team after his return during last year’s Tour. Brailsford was announced on stage at Via Atelier in London on Tuesday as Team Principal of Netcompany Ineos Cycling Team and still Director of Sport at Ineos.

Brailsford and Rogaczewski both spoke about the ‘blizzard of data’ there is to tackle in modern cycling, with Netcompany’s PULSE AI platform – which is used to optimise operations at major airports such as London Heathrow – set to be used in pursuit of greater efficiency and performance.

But can AI really help win them the Tour de France?

They obviously don’t have Pogačar, but Netcompany-Ineos are also without any of recent his closest GC rivals, like Jonas Vingegaard, recent podium finishers Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz, or the top young rider in the sport, Paul Seixas.

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

The last time Ineos finished on the podium of the Tour was with Geraint Thomas in 2022, who sat on stage in a polo shirt, not the new kit, having recently retired.

Brailsford thinks the genetic gap to the likes of Pogačar and the rising French star Seixas, two riders whom he singled out, can be closed, with Netcompany Ineos extracting every bit of human performance possible with the help of science and artificial intelligence.

“This partnership gives us that opportunity to really think further ahead. Like Andre, we’re not scared of setting big, ambitious goals. We always look at the biggest prize in our sport and think, if you’re going to go for anything, you should go for that,” said Brailsford.

What to read next

“It’s an interesting place for the sport because clearly there’s one guy who is pretty good at the minute. There’s another very young guy who is also pretty good, and everybody could just say, ‘Well, that’s it, let’s shut up shop, game over’. I don’t believe that.”

Driven by the goal of closing that gap to the Pogačars of the world, Brailsford draws inspiration from Roger Bannister, Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha in the hope that cycling’s next stars will keep coming, and that one of them will be among his team’s ranks.

“I think Seixas is fantastic for the sport, and you’re always going to have somebody who’s out there, and you’ve got to close the gap to who drives you. So you might not have someone with the same genetics, but with the right training and the advantage of getting everything out, absolutely squeezing every last drop of performance out, you’re going to get close,” he said.

“I think now we’re seeing Pogačar be out on his own for a while, and Seixas coming in, with Vingegaard, too. I think it’ll be a bit like a four-minute mile; when it was broken, all of a sudden, quite a few people broke it. Or like the marathon on the weekend; we [Ineos Sport] worked really hard with Eliud Kipchoge to go under the two hours [in 2019, an unofficial record], and lo and behold, somebody goes and does a 1:59.30, and then the guy who was second also goes under two, in his first ever marathon.

“It all comes at once, and I really do think that there’ll be a crop of youngsters who will close that gap. I think it’s coming. It’s an exciting place for the sport to be, so with more insight, more information, getting more accurate, with more detail, and making more decisions right most of the time, we’ll close the gap.”

The ‘Holy Grail’ of individualisation

The freedom of a bigger budget and the role of Geraint Thomas

With the danger of AI reliance creeping into Ineos’ methods, the perfect antithesis to this is perhaps the presence of 2018 Tour winner Thomas as their Director of Racing.

Old school during his time as a rider, specifically in his training methods, the Welshman has lost none of his wit in his new job, drawing laughter from the audience in London by joking: “I only got a laptop six months ago.”

But it’s a “sixth sense” for elite performance, which Brailsford described him as having, which makes him a valuable asset in this endeavour.

“Nobody thought I would win the Tour until I won it,” he said, responding to whether Ineos have the rider who will win the Tour in the next five years among their ranks already. But he knows better than most the challenge Pogačar and Vingegaard present, having finished third at the Tour behind the pair in 2022.

Aiming to win it within the next five years “is obviously bold, but that’s the pinnacle of sport, and you need to try and be the very best and get to the top,” said Thomas.

“That gap is there for sure, and it’s big. But if no one tries this… we believe we can close that gap, along with this partnership.

“It’s been talked about for the next five years or whatever, but I think we want to try and win it now. That’s not saying we’re going to, but I think if you’re always thinking, ‘Oh yeah, down the line we’ll win it’, there’s no real urgency.

“If you can say, ‘Right, I need to do this tomorrow’, then everyone is just getting out of bed and really making it happen today. That’s what’s going to push us forward quicker.”

Thomas was the first of the management group to speak to the written press on Tuesday, meaning he fielded several questions about both the ownership of the team and the financial benefits which the reported €20 million a year from Netcompany provides.

Even with the naming rights being given to the Danish company, which sits front and centre on the jersey and is the first part of the team name, Thomas said that Ratcliffe’s and Ineos “are still the owners, they’re still 100 per cent committed, and I think it’s just going to be a great partnership between everyone.”

Ineos have stepped back by allowing the arrival of a new budget source, but it still isn’t clear exactly how the shots will be called, and how Ratcliffe’s role has changed.

And while Brailsford focused on the potential gains of AI when it comes to performance, it’s the stability of securing sponsorship, long-term existence and a bigger budget which should point to a more fruitful future for the British team, and could actually win them the Tour in the next five years.

“When it comes to the budget, that’s obviously sensitive, but I think it just gives us the platform to not worry about the financial side, really, and just focus on performance and where we’re going,” said Thomas. “Because I think that’s quite rare in cycling anyway, to have that solid sort of base.

“Obviously, financials are one thing, but using it in the right way, spending it properly and having a real focus on getting the best out of the people in the team, that’s what’s really going to make the difference. You need a bit of money to get the right team in place.”

Team version 3.0

When it comes to who will win the Tour for Ineos, Pogačar will likely remain the standard to chase for the next five years until his contract runs out in 2030, and Vingegaard – whose deal at Visma expires in 2028 – could be the rider to try and entice, especially given he is Danish.

But it’s Seixas that Netcompany Ineos will surely have their eyes on. Taking another step in his incredible rise to the top at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, his contract with Decathlon CMA CGM ending in 2027 has all of the top teams in cycling desperate to try to secure his signature, with big money required.

Not speaking specifically to the pursuit of the Frenchman, Thomas did give a look into how this increase in budget could help them persuade the biggest talents to lead the project, with Egan Bernal, Oscar Onley, and Kévin Vauquelin not setting the world alight as their current GC leaders.

“I think just a narrative around the team is pretty good at the moment, it feels like it’s an evolution of the team again. It’s like 3.0, so to speak,” said Thomas.

“We’re at the start of a really exciting journey now, and I think people in other teams see that, and hopefully, want to be a part of that as well, and that makes a big difference when it comes to signing guys. We’ve got the solid foundation now, so we don’t have to worry about that.”

The ingredients to try and win the Tour in the next five years are potentially there, but it still seems as though the rider who will win it is not yet set to wear a Netcompany Ineos jersey in 2026 or indeed 2027.

Using AI to advance their performance can surely only get them so far, but the attractiveness of the team due to their secured budget and future could be the path to drawing in a rider like Seixas, and indeed winning their eighth Tour de France yellow jersey, and first since 2019. But there’s a lot of work to be done yet.