Ineos Grenadiers
Comments
-
He wanted to ride GC at the Tour last year, but wasn't prepared to fully commit to it as he continued to piss about with his mountain bike ambitions. He was found wanting, but instead of thinking what was best for the team, which would've been to support Carlos Rodriguez on his GC bid, he sulked and barely did a tap to help.
For me, that tells you everything about him; he spreads himself too thinly, isn't a team player and doesn't have the right attributes to be a GC rider.
1 -
If he does end up at Q36.5 he needs a new agent. On the bright side, he'll be sole leader for races like the Sibiu Tour.
1 -
Only success who had, Ineos? There was a Giro stage win for Narvaez too.
0 -
Completely agree. Pidcock is a total racer. He routinely goes for the high risk move to win the race and his otherworldly skill allows him to pull it off. His move on Koretzky in the Olympics was phenomenal and there is a corner he takes at a British road race years ago (there is a clip on a Pidcock highlights YouTube video), which is the best cornering under pressure I've ever seen. I've never had the impression he ducks anyone.
All that being said, I'm not convinced he is a good investment for a team, except if his value to Pinarello goes way beyond road victories. Not sure how that is calculated. He definitely does not win enough on the road for his rumored salary or talent. It's also unlikely he will ever be able to beat Pogacar, Vingegaard or Remco at a GT.
What would you all pay him as a road rider? I don't think I'd be willing to go above 1.5 mil.
PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20231 -
Amstel as well.
Oh.
Warning No formatter is installed for the format0 -
He wanted to ride GC at the Tour last year, and after one bad day Cummings (and others) wanted him to drop it and ride for Rodriguez. He was rightly pissed off, because the riding for GC thing was supposed to be about learning what was possible, and to do that he needed to keep trying to improve his position to see what he could do. It's not that Ineos tried to turn him into a GC rider when he wanted to ride classics, it's that they didn't fully back him in making the transition.
Warning No formatter is installed for the format1 -
But Ineos, as Sky did the same with Thomas. I think it was 2016 or 2017 when he was high on GC before Barguil put him into a lampost. He switched to full support of Froome. And then he won the Tour.
I think ultimately this comes down to what Pidcock wants to do and what Ineos want him to do, with the major difference being the salary. Ineos are paying for a full time road rider, GC contender and he's not delivering.
Twitter: @RichN951 -
He was only ever riding as second fiddle to Froome in that tour though. He was nearly 5 minutes down already, and lost over 18 minutes. It was stage 16, the race nearly done and dusted. Froome already had a GC win and a 2nd place and was in yellow and the firm favourite (it was 2015, I looked this up, I don't actually have a memory!) He wasn't being asked to ride for a top ten GC hopeful with an outside chance of a podium, from somewhere in the first half of the race.
Ineos knew when they signed him that PIdock was multidisciplinary, and that was never going to change before he'd had a crack at the Olympic MTB. They were fully on board with it, like they're on board with Ganna et al riding track. What it looked like to me was Cummings effectively pulling the plug on Pidcock's GC ambitions (and development) mid-race, and with very little tact or diplomacy at all, for very little point (Rodriguez wasn't looking incredible). How it all played out wasn't even clear to Pidcock until the Netflix show aired this year, and he understandably was upset about how he'd been discussed behind the scenes.
Warning No formatter is installed for the format1 -
Rodriguez won Romandie overall
"Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago0 -
You're under playing Rodriguez's position. Around the time pidcock collapsed, Rodriguez beat Pogacar and Vingergaard to a mountain stage and looked like the favourite to get third until he crashed and went off the boil. He was a good bet at that time and deserved support from the full team.
"Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago2 -
Pidcock already had an Olympic MTB gold before riding his first Tour. Continuing for the Paris Games could definitely be seen as an indulgence for one of your main road riders. I guess it all comes down to what was discussed and agreed when putting together his contract and what the team had as their expectations in return. Has he been upholding his part of the bargain in return for that freedom to continue pursuing MTB medals?
0 -
don't they call it "monkey branching" ?
So that's the two most successful cyclists of 2024 on the Ineos roster, gone!
BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
Instagramme1 -
Current deal ends 2025.
1
