Ineos deny departure as team targets more sponsorship

Britain’s Ineos Grenadiers cycling team insist they will remain in the sport, but are searching for new partners to keep pace with competitors.

Ineos, who won seven Tours de France between 2012 and 2019, mostly as Team Sky, suffered their worst season in 2024.

And they begin this year without top talent Tom Pidcock, who left for Q36.5 in December.

“The team will exist into the next cycle [from 2026],” said chief executive John Allert. “We are very lucky to have owners that are very passionate about this sport; they are very involved in this sport.”

Ineos Grenadiers are owned by Ineos boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe and former Sky team principal Sir Dave Brailsford, who now heads up the broader Ineos sports stable that includes a near 30% stake in Manchester United.

“They get on their bike and they’ve had numerous opportunities if they didn’t want to be in the sport to make that clear. But they do want to be in the sport,” added Allert.

Ineos won just 14 races last year, on their way to finishing only seventh in the sport’s biggest race, the Tour de France, through 23-year-old Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez.

Typically, the team wins around 35-40 races during the road cycling’s World Tour calendar, which includes a mix of one-day races, stages and overall classifications.

Ineos’ budget of an estimated 36m euros (£30.3m) has long been considered to be one of the biggest in the pro peloton, but other teams have brought more resources into the sport in recent years. These include Tour winner Tadej Pogacar’s UAE-Team Emirates, who are a so-called super team, consisting of multiple top sponsors and paying their best riders record-breaking salaries.

And Allert concedes Ineos now need to bridge that gap.

“I’m not going to put a number on that, but it’s a number that’s greater than what we are currently spending.

“We certainly have a commercial strategy that is an evolution of our strategy – we’ve appointed an agency looking at partnership opportunities like most other teams,” said the Australian.

“I’ve heard some bonkers rumours in the last couple of weeks about people buying us or investing in us or whatever else – [the] agency [is] out there talking to hopefully as many leading global brands a possible.”

Meanwhile, Allert added Pidcock and the team had become “no longer compatible” when asked about the 25-year-old’s departure.

The Briton, who won one of the Tour’s most iconic stages in 2022 – on stage 12’s race to Alpe d’Huez – and also won the Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold and Brabantse Pijl one-day classic races in an Ineos jersey, was unexpectedly left out of the final big race of last season, and departed the team shortly afterwards.

“I think the whole Tom topic might be one for a book in 10 years’ time,” added Allert.

“But we’re certainly moving on; we parted ways amicably. I have a lot of respect for Tom – he’s got a lot of talent.

“I personally left on very good terms from when we last spoke and we wish him well.”