By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) – After winning seven of eight titles from 2012-2019, Ineos-Grenadiers have been kicked out of contention since Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard seized power in brutal fashion and there is little chance that the British outfit will regain their crown in the near future.
Pogacar won the 2020 and 2021 Tours before being toppled by Vingegaard this year, and in these three editions, Ineos-Grenadiers only managed two third-place finishes through Richard Carapaz last year and Geraint Thomas on Sunday while never being in the mix for the overall victory.
“They’re bastards,” Thomas joked when asked about Vingegaard and Pogacar.
The Dane won his maiden Tour at his second attempt while his rival, 23, won the first two he took part in.
“There’s always been young guys performing well but those two are even better, especially Pogacar who can do everything.”
In the 22-year-old Tom Pidcock, winner at top of L’Alpe d’Huez on his Tour de France debut, Ineos-Grenadiers have a potential Tour winner, but he still has a long road ahead of him to be near Vingegaard and Pogacar’s level.
“Tom for sure has a very bright future… but in the more short term, who do you sign?,” Thomas said. “The best way is as we came in here with a good strong lineup.”
Ineos-Grenadiers started the race with three leaders, but things quickly went pear shaped.
“Dani (Martinez) was sick, Yatesy (Adam Yates) has been sick now, so if we have three really god guys, maybe, but Jumbo-Visma are so strong. UAE, you’d say they’re weak but that day (on the mountain stage finishing in Peyragudes in the third week), Iceberg (Mikkel Bjerg) and (Brandon) McNulty, that day, what can you do?
“It is definitely going to motivate us and I’ll do everything I can if I do one or two more years, we can definitely but there’s a lot to catch up for sure.”
HANGOVER
Ineos-Grenadiers, formerly known as Team Sky, may also need to adapt to a new, more aggressive way of racing after controlling their rivals with a fast pace from the bottom of the final climbs proved enough for them to win the Tour from 2012-2019, with only Vincenzo Nibali taking one title in 2014.
“Sky, Ineos, we’ve had this perception of being robotic and we did that because it was the best way to win the Tour,” said Thomas.
On a personal level, Thomas was happy to finish third overall four years after winning the title, having started the race with a big question mark on his capacities to follow the best.
“I always believed I could be on the podium,” the 36-year-old said.
“The end of last year was really hard mentally for a number of reasons. Once I started again it was a steady build-up but I was comfortable I would be in the mix.
“The team saw me more as a Sepp Kuss (Vingegaard’s lieutenant in the mountains), a domestique in the mountains who would be quite there all the time, that’s the impression I got. It changed a bit after the Tour de Suisse (in June) and I’m just super happy to be there in the mix.”
Will Thomas celebrate his podium finish in Paris?
“I’ll try not to celebrate as much as in the past. I’d like to race until October. Because when you get near the end of your career… I want to see the most of it, I want to do more races, be with the boys,” he said.
“We will celebrate, but not as hard as we used to, because there’s one thing that comes with age, it’s hangovers.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
