Ineos Grenadiers

Exactly.....

What do you expect the management of the team to do when one of their leaders is actively looking to break his contract, despite it having three years still to run?

Pidcock has made it very clear he wants out, i think the team have every right to pull him out of races.

I think we should wait for the full story to come out before drawing any conclusions

The guy said before the tour that he'll decide how he rides not the team. He's come across as a dick a couple of times this season and he can't back it up with results. If ineos are paying £6-7m per year for him and Bernal it's no wonder they can't compete.

When he's sunk £200m into the boat, it's not money that's a problem if he wants to win. He could pay them off if they're taking up spaces that could go to other, better riders who they could get. I just don't think they can get them.

They are no longer an attractive looking destination for up and coming riders, eg Tulett leaving after 2 years for Visma.

It just feels/seems like a downward spiral, quite sad from the heady heights of the previous decade.

Yes, I've said before I don't understand what he's doing. Billionaire playthings aren't supposed to be about getting value.

Man Utd haven't been very good since Fergie left, so their decline pre-dates Radcliffe by over a decade.

A juggernaut like Man Utd takes a while to turn around though, and Ineos have only been involved since last Xmas or so, haven't they? I think they replaced the director of football, so they made change at the very top, which is what you've got to do to have an effect later. Without that your recruitment is buggered and you can' really have much effect by firing the manager.

I say this as an Arsenal fan that would be happy if Ineos accidentally drove that Man U juggernaut into the sea at Barcelona to try and race the New Zealand boat.

My top trolling scenario has the billionaire owner of Q36.5 sign Pidcock, then buy the Ineos WT license in a deal which keeps the sports and performance directors in place for three years.

Every team at the moment has to deal with the UAE problem. The biggest part of this is Pogacar. Pidcock is less than a year younger. What big races is he likely to win? He's third tier at best.

Also UAE are buying up a lot of the new talent too. Ayuso has been followed by Del Toro and Torres. Their train makes the Sky train look like a Hornby set.

So what to do. One option, which Ineos seems to be taking, is a have some placeholders like Rodriguez, Arensman, De Plus and Bernal. while they take punts on riders not from the Western European circuit who are seven or eight years younger than Pogacar in the hope of finding the next Froome. Ironically Israel may be attracting the same riders due to Froome's presence..

The other option is the old HTC model, used to an extent now by Lidl-Trek and Alpecin. Bin the GC at major races, go for wins

Third tier behind MVdP and Remco. Pogacar is a tier above them.

How about a straight swap, Pidcock for Remco? 🤣

I'd definitely agree Ineos do not have 'THE' rider, or A rider capable of taking them back to the to consistent winning ways, but to repeat myself, it feels as if there is no focus on the direction the team should be taking, in parallel with seemingly very few riders wanting to join them.

How many riders have been talked about recently, and that Ineos are interested in them, only for them to end up at another team, Castrillo is an obvious and well known recent example - not that I am suggesting for a 2nd he would be the silver bullet, but just as an example.

Back in the day, other riders would be almost certain to sign for a certain team, Sky would want them, and Sky would get them, by whatever means, likely paying over the odds, but the rider must have also decided they wanted to end up there.

They seemingly haven't really considered remodelling into a stages or classics team - they have one aging sprinter, who is a fair way past his best, and for the last few years Pidcock has been their classics and one day man, but seemingly now totally out of favour.

Dylan van Baarle has gone, Nharvaez who could win stages has also gone.

I'm guessing morale within the team, front and back end must be pretty low right now.

@Pross I forgot add previous dead certs like Ganna seem to have dropped off somewhat, or perhaps the training methods they used are now outdated and other teams have come up with better training and fuelling strategies.

I know Pidcock stated iirc that the training methods they employed for him were not allowing him to get the best out of himself, maybe that is the same for the other riders in the team as well - that would be another negative to put top tier, or potential top tier riders off joining them.

Tarling's very young, but he has seemed pretty dejected in recent interviews, and his form has clearly dropped off - are they asking too much of them, is the training not optimised potentially - all guesswork of course.

Does anyone recall the TGH interviews at a few races, I forget which ones, it was a stage race, and it seemed like he was at rock bottom, difficult to watch.