Can Josh Tarling push for a Tour de France debut in 2026? Photo courtesy of SWpix.
Hi Subscribers,
I hope you had a great break over the Christmas holidays and that you’re already thinking about the 2026 season, which starts in just a few weeks with the Tour Down Under.
Over the last few days, I’ve been planning out the first half of my own season, which will see the Substack head to Spain for a series of training camps in January before a trip to the Challenge Mallorca to see Remco Evenepoel and his new Red Bull team in action in the all-important TTT. There will be a couple of races in February and March and, of course, a healthy dose of the cobbled Spring Classics.
I have a couple more races in the first few months of the season, and there will be a longer stint at the Giro d’Italia (I did a week in 2025), and most of the Tour de France and Femmes are on my schedule.
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PS, I almost forgot, I have a story for today. I was talking to a former rider the other day about who might be selected for the Ineos Grenadiers team at the Tour de France in 2026. There’s no doubt that the team have enjoyed a hugely improved transfer window – their best in several seasons – and in this story I’ve picked what I’d consider their best line-up for the biggest race in the world.
Let me know in the comments section who you’d take if you were picking the team!
After all the money and effort spent on bringing Onley to the team, he’s the automatic nailed-on leader for the Tour de France. Not since Geraint Thomas in 2018 has the British team had a homegrown winner of the world’s biggest bike race, and even though Onley isn’t on the same level as Pogačar, Evenepoel, and Vingegaard, he still provides his new employers with a compelling narrative in terms of trying to bridge the gap to the proven Grand Tour winners.
The course looks good for the young Scot too, with just one individual time trial and a TTT effort at the start of the race that should see his team keep him in contention, but not in a position where they’ll need to control the race at any point.
If you’re a fan of the team and their legacy, there’s a lot to be excited about because, for the first time since 2022, they have a rider who can genuinely challenge for the podium.
Vauquelin brings versatility and steel to Ineos Grenadiers, but there’s a nagging feeling that he’s not a thoroughbred GC contender, and that it’ll be hard to make substantial improvements on his seventh place from 2025. If Onley’s credentials do not convince you, then you can’t really make a case for a rider who finished a further 10 minutes down on the Picnic rider and 22 minutes adrift of Pogačar.