Ineos Grenadiers

Pidders is A1 in MTB and cyclocross but.... the big money is in the road cycling GT world. I just don't feel he is best suited for that environment.

You do wonder about the editing in something like the Netflix series. IMO it looked like they made the bigest mountain they could out of the molehills that were there e.g. using "behind closed doors" footage where Pidcock was understandably p'd off after he'd had a bad day.

I still think GC at Grand Tours is a poor fit for Pidcock though, he doesn't have the consistency / time trialling / climbing ability to be up there with the best. Neither he or his team will be happy with the top 5 or top 10 results that are likely to be his ceiling in GTs. He does however have have a great racing brain and a useful finishing kick from a small bunch. Its like Ineos want him to be the new Froome or G, when in reality, he's the new Kwiatowski. You look at the palmeres of both and Pidcock seems to be following a similar "not many wins but the ones he has are big" trajectory.

Re the Netflix thing, while Pidcock didn't come across as a team player it looked like that was the culmination of a fair amount of mismanagement previously, plus being in a shitty mood on the day after losing time. It didn't look like the management team had much faith in him riding GC from the off, which was something that they should have had out with him before any team selection.

If he was genuinely there to learn GC riding, he should have been cut loose to ride his own race and see how high he could climb back up. If he was there with an actual GC aim that was now unachievable there should have been an agreed plan B - support or stage hunting prior to the start.

At the very least there should have been a discussion with him where he could at least outline what he thought was the way forward before they just turned him into a domestique. There was little need to go in so early and so drastically while they still had a reasonable team to back Rodriguez up.

Ineos should have been far better at managing expectations and far better at being open and transparent. I don't think anybody is at their happiest when their management is making huge decisions about their work without their input.

In their latest pod I couldn't help but think that Thomas and Rowe were tiptoeing around a bit when they came to Pidders in their discussion of the Ineos Tour team

Also reports they are after Sam Watson

He got dropped from the Tour (physically at least, played some role from home) at very short notice, which everyone guessed was due to the Pidcock thing on Netflix. Hasn't been seen since. That's the long and short of it, could be literally anything behind it, including just taking a break.

Scott Drawer? Who only joined them last winter? He's a hugely respected coach and performance expert, who's had success elsewhere. I can't see how you can lay the blame for Ineos' under performance squarely at his feet, given he's had, what, nine months, in his role.

I don't think replicating football's tendency to sack managers after poor results is going to fix anything at Ineos. They need to build a new performance and winning culture and that takes time. Changing key roles after one season is a recipe for continued under performance.

From 5 years at Millfield school? Before that wasnt doing a specific non performance role?

You are right on giving people a chance. But......and I know this is not always a great gauge so am happy to hear alternative opinions..he gave an interview during the Giro and it was very Partridge (aka awful)

Announcing something soon according to podcast. Currently moving back to Wales if that gives any clues?

I’d assumed Ineos DS.

I predicted a slump when he bought them. Time will tell.

It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?

PFP continues to be the best individual grenadier this season by winning a silver medal at the XCC world championships.

The main reason to post this though is to say that ONLY COS EVIE RICHARDS BLOODY WON IT!!!🎉🥰🥳

(Typical Evie with a meh Olympics but coming good for the WC...).

It was a great race, she came good from a fair way back - was fairly confident she would outgun PFP in the sprint IF she was there, and she was.

I'm banking on PFP excelling in the XCO on Sunday 😎

Not seen the course at all, wondering if she will dabble with the full susser for a change, she does seem to love the HT - almost certainly her last pro MTB ride for a long time, if not forever, though suspose she might be tempted to return once she finishes with the road, or she could go gravel of course.

Pidders did well to come back to 8th, believe he had an off early on, and with such a short full gas effort I suspect he simply used it as a training exercise from then on.

Aldridge did very well to take 2nd, and Koretzky clearly carrying his excellent from from the Olympics.

5th place was pretty good after missing 6-8 weeks with concussion. I said elsewhere, that the Olympics would be too soon for her, but the Worlds might go well.

And as mentioned on commentary, there are rumours about the Trek team......and possible big changes. I can't imagine Evie not on a Trek, but who knows? Maybe PFP's replacement???? Probably not.....

Thanks... unfortunately, because a cheapskate I don't do "Discovery". However, I ended up finding a highlights on ES a bit back. Great riding by Evie and very pleased for her. I wasn't impressed by the quality of the video coverage though.