THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
After a decade of almost total dominance , the British team was well and truly beaten at last year ’ s Tour de France . It ’ s now taken stock , and aims to be back on the attack with three experienced Grand Tour winners in 2021 . BY QUENTIN FINNÉ
2018 Tour champion Geraint Thomas will lead the attack for Team Ineos
Grenadiers at the 2021 race .
“ ometimes you
S learn more from defeat than from the greatest successes .” Uttered by Ineos Grenadiers team manager Dave Brailsford in the wake of Egan Bernal ’ s retirement from last year ’ s Tour de France , those words appear to have led to a reassessment that ’ s been far more significant than that simple phrase initially suggested . Following the departure of four-time Tour winner Chris Froome to Israel Start-Up Nation in the offseason , Ineos Grenadiers , a team that first emerged with Sky as its sponsor in 2010 , initiated one of the most important strategic turns in its history , a move that began in the final week of last year ’ s race .
“ Egan Bernal ’ s abandon last September [ on the morning of stage 17 ] forced us to completely revise the plans and ambitions which we ’ d originally had at the start in Nice ,” says Brailsford . “ We decided to race more offensively with the aim of taking some stage victories . As well as the successes that this philosophy yielded [ notably the Michal Kwiatkowski-Richard Carapaz one-two on the 18th stage ], we also realised that the riders and support staff really appreciated this approach to racing , which we then applied again at the Giro and the Vuelta . And , obviously , the public liked it a lot too .”
Liberating experience
This led to the members of the British squad taking a long , hard look at themselves . In 2021 , the Ineos Grenadiers team will have to live up to its name , as its boss wants to see it blow the race apart by being committed to attack .
“ We ’ ve got a lot of data on fans and how the public perceives us ,” says Brailsford , “ and when we analysed it , we found that the last few months of the season had had a profound impact on this image in a positive way . So this winter we thought about what kind of team we were and how we could continue to race in a more open manner . In my eyes , this isn ’ t a reflection on
PHOTOGRAPHS : TOMMASO PELAGALLI / BETTINI / PRESSE SPORTS , STEPHANE MANTEY , ETIENNE GARNIER
20 | TOUR DE FRANCE 2021