Ominous strength in depth boosts Ineos’ quest to reclaim Tour title
Last September, for only the second time in the last nine years, Sir Dave Brailsford did not stand in the Place de Concorde celebrating a Tour de France win.
Hopes crumbled when defendingchampioneganbernal shipped time on the Grand Colombier on stage 15, abandoning the race with knee and back injuries two days later.
There was the consolation of a stage win for Michal Kwiatkowski on stage 18, crossing the line alongside team-mate Richard Carapaz, but the race had long since evolved into a two-way battle between Primoz Roglic and eventual winner Tadej Pogacar as the Ineos Grenadiers watched on.
Their determination to put that right over the next month is clear from the squad that will roll out in Brest on Saturday. Three former Grand Tour winners, four plausible team leaders, and strength in depth that nobody - not even Roglic's Jumbo Visma team - can compete with. The Ineos deck is stacked with 2018 winner Geraint Thomas, 2019 Giro d'italia champion Richard Carapaz, 2020 Giro winner Tao Geoghegan Hart and a revitalised Richie Porte, fresh from victory at the Criterium du Dauphine.
Kwiatkowski, Luke Rowe, Dylan Van Baarle and Jonathan Castroviejo complete an experienced, rounded line-up which will intimidate rivals even before the flag is dropped on Saturday.
Will it mean a return to the
old 'Sky Train'? Of attempting to steamroller rivals into the road as they sit on the front of thepelotonsettingapacenoone else can keep up with?
Brailsford has insisted such tactics, unpopular with fans, are in the past - no longer in keeping with the team's philosophy after they used a more attacking, more open and, let us be straight, more exciting approach to win the Giro with Geoghegan Hart and then Bernal in the last 12 months.
Butgrenadierssportdirector Gabriel Rasch gave some more telling answers in an interview earlier this month as he spokeof"outmaneuvering"and "outnumbering" Roglic and Pogacar.
"You have to choose the right tactic for the right day," Rasch said. "It could be boring stages for the old Sky tactic where youpotentiallydefend,itcanbe the other way where we will be more aggressive and attack."
In Thomas and Carapaz, the
Grenadiers have leaders with contrasting styles who can act as a foil for one another if required.
Thomas, now 35 and in a contract year, looks back to the form that saw him win this race in 2018, winning the Tour de Romandie in May with podium finishes at the Volta a Catalunya and Dauphine either side.
Fifty-eight kilometres of time triallingplaytothewelshman's strengths, and he must use the
stage five race against the clock to establish himself in the fight for yellow.
Carapaz, in contrast, is an explosiveclimberwhowilllook to the six summit finishes - and the daunting double ascent of Mont Ventoux on stage 11 - to make up time.
When it comes to leadership the Grenadiers insist they will, as before, let the road decide. If they get it right, rivals will have no choice but to follow their lead.