What next for Froome, Thomas and Cavendish?
Ruthless Brailsford leaves star riders out of the Ineos Tour squad – but could this be a stroke of genius that no one saw coming, asks James Shrubsall
Ineos will go to the Tour de France this year without the two riders who have won the race for them five times since 2013 – Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas.
The team – rebranded Ineos Grenadiers for this year’s Tour – broke the news last week after an under-par showing in the Critérium du Dauphiné from the British pair, which saw them both finish in the autobus on the final day.
Egan Bernal put in a good if not sparkling showing, only to be withdrawn mid-race with a back issue, but the team as a whole were unable to match up to their big rivals for the Tour GC, Jumbo-visma. The Dutch team emerged from the race looking imperious, and what followed was a hasty reshuffle of what was the widely predicted multi-leader approach of the past two years, with Thomas replacing Richard Carapaz for the Giro d’italia and Froome given a crack at the Vuelta. In turn, Carapaz was drafted into the Tour squad.
“They came up against Jumbo-visma and took it on from the front and just exploded,” Eurosport commentator and pundit Brian Smith told Cycling Weekly. “That to me is devastation in a team. Confidence deflates. Jumbo-visma made them look normal.
“Dave Brailsford is renowned for making big decisions. He made the decision not to go back with defending champion Bradley Wiggins and chose Froome; this seems to be another big decision... history repeating itself in that he’s gone with Bernal instead of possibly Thomas,” he added.
Big question
Smith argued, personalities aside, there is a wider question to be asked of Ineos.
“The big question,” he said, “is why? When they’ve got the biggest budget, and they’ve got the data, they’ve done the same training, when you look at Jumbo-visma, why were Geraint and Team Ineos so far away? That’s the question for me.”
Pete Kennaugh, who rode the Tour with Team Sky in support of Froome in 2013 and 2015, has been on the end of similar decisions himself and said: “The way Brailsford works, and the way he picks the teams and how ruthless he is... at the end of the day he’s about winning, he’s not about taking any passengers.”
Ineos promptly released a barrage of video interviews with the riders in question on social media. Both Froome and Thomas appeared appropriately accepting of the decision, saying they were looking forward to taking on their new goals, while Bernal also made all the right noises, saying it would be strange without the two British riders in the team but that he was looking forward to perhaps supporting Froome in the Vuelta in October, and excited to see how Thomas fared at the Giro.
In reality, this is not how Thomas hoped it would pan out – as the winner in 2018 and second place last year, he had genuine
“At the end of the day, Brailsford is all about winning”
designs on the Tour. “I can tell by what he’s pushed out [on social media] that it’s a big blow for him,” Smith said. “He will need to spend the next few days getting his head sorted out and getting back into training and focusing on the Giro.”
Frustration
But Thomas’s omission from the Tour team would at least spare him the frustration of being a bit-player, Kennaugh said: “At the end of the day he still gets to target the Giro. And I can only speculate but I’m sure he’d prefer to go and target the Giro than do a job at the Tour and be coming in in the second group.”
Lockdown, Kennaugh suggested, meant different things to different riders, and particularly for a new father like Thomas the opportunity to take some family time could have played a part in his lack of form in the Dauphiné.
“I think G probably made the
most of that first month, enjoying being around his family,” he said. “He had his child last year and he probably saw that as an opportunity to spend some quality family time. Then you’ve got the other guys who don’t really have anything else going on and they’re maybe just fully committed.
“You’ve got to remember that at one point no one knew when they’d be racing again… the best-case scenario has happened, really,” Kennaugh added.
For Froome, reaching full fitness in time for the Tour after his awful crash last June was always far from a given, and he may feel a certain amount of relief at being relieved of the pressure to try and perform at the Tour.
“The only thing I would say about Froome is I’m surprised to see he’s back to the level he’s at – simple as that,” Smith said. “He needs a Grand Tour this year in his build-up for next year. And I think Dave [Brailsford] has always wanted to win all three Grand Tours in one year – well he’s got an opportunity to do it this year.”
But going on the four-time winner’s Dauphiné form, Kennaugh predicts that the
Vuelta win, at least, will be out of reach on this occasion. “I don’t think Froome will win the Vuelta,” he said. “From what I could see at the Dauphiné, it’s quite a long way to go to be winning a Grand Tour this year. It looked like he was still on the road to recovery – not properly race fit yet.”
Changing of the guard
With Ecuadorian Carapaz on board, Ineos will line up in Nice this weekend with a squad made up of 50 per cent Spanish speakers and only one Brit – Luke Rowe. Despite the signing of Adam Yates, announced days after the Tour team, it almost feels like a changing of the guard, a move away from a British team built around British riders to something far more international.
Smith, speaking ahead of the announcement of Yates’s signing, said: “It’s not a British team – if you can remember a few years back, Dave [Brailsford] was looking at Colombia and bringing on South Americans. South American cycling is booming at the moment, everybody wants a piece of it. It’s all about winning, it’s as simple as that… all the teams are becoming more international.”
Ineos, says Kennaugh, is changing but it’s more evolution than revolution.
“It’s definitely a long way from what it used to be in terms of the kind of British outlook,” he said. “There’s plenty of Brits on there – it’s up to them to be at their best to get in the big races. It’s the same on any team.
“I think when you look at it, it’s Dave B all over – it’s a stroke of genius,” Kennaugh concluded of Brailsford’s Tour selection. “If you look at who the riders are, their capabilities, you don’t really need all three of them at the Tour. And it’s not the kind of thing that Ineos usually do anyway, you know. I think it’s a clever play.”
“There are plenty of Brits in there – it’s up to them to be at their best”