{"id":161741,"date":"2025-06-06T02:01:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T02:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161741\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T02:01:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T02:01:22","slug":"could-thomas-and-brailsford-lead-ineos-grenadiers-into-new-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161741\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Thomas and Brailsford Lead Ineos Grenadiers into New Era?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button”} }”><\/p>\n

Could Dave Brailsford and Geraint Thomas<\/a> lead Ineos Grenadiers<\/a> into its new \u201csuper team\u201d era?<\/p>\n

Changes at the top of Jim Ratcliffe\u2019s sporting empire are making this new Tour de France<\/a> management tag team a possibility.<\/p>\n

The breaking news is that Brailsford will exit his role at the Manchester United soccer club and return to his former leadership position across Ineos Sport. It\u2019s only 18 months since he traveled in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

But Ineos billionaire owner Ratcliffe is becoming increasingly desperate for success<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Right now, with his franchises ailing and the jewel in his crown, Manchester United, lost in the dust, his cycling team, despite the ongoing successes of Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Emirates-XRG, might be the best horse to back.<\/p>\n

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Sir Dave Brailsford is relinquishing his day-to-day role at Manchester United and returning to act as director of sport for INEOS, in a major recalibration of Sir Jim Ratcliffe\u2019s Old Trafford executive.<\/p>\n

The move coincides with Jason Wilcox being named #MUFC<\/a>\u2018s director of\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/0nXwpVCMt5<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) June 4, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Brailsford will continue as director of Ineos Sport, and will not return to his old day-to-day role as the team principal at Ineos Grenadiers. He will be working closely with the cycling team and other units across the Ineos Sports group.<\/p>\n

Having Brailsford closer to the cycling team should be a plus.\u00a0Seven Tour de France wins in eight years, with four different riders, once made a Brailsford-led grand tour success regarded as routine.<\/p>\n

Ask anyone closely involved with British Cycling\u2019s Olympic program and the Tour de France who drove the performances, who led the charge when times got tough, who raised the roof when morale was low, and they will always respond: \u201cDave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manchester United fans and football pundits who railed against a \u201cnon-football\u201d man being put in charge of running their beloved club never saw that side of Brailsford. They\u2019ll be pleased to see the man who they characterized as a \u201cspoofer,\u201d exit stage left.<\/p>\n

In fact, Brailsford wasn\u2019t really there to run the team\u2019s on-pitch performance, which is probably just as well, given how disastrous their last season has been.<\/p>\n

Thomas already eyeing backroom role in elite cycling
\n\"\"Thomas and Brailsford celebrate their 2018 Tour de France win when the team was backed by Sky. (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Now, the future structure of Ineos Grenadiers, just as the team appears to have found new impetus this season with a more aggressive racing style, will once again be subject to speculation.<\/p>\n

The rumors over 2018 Tour de France winner Thomas moving into a senior management role after he retires at the end of the summer<\/a> have recently gathered pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love cycling and the team, so would love to stay involved in some capacity,\u201d Thomas said in April. \u201cI think I\u2019ve got a lot to offer on performance and going after bike races.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019d be a lot to learn as well, which is also exciting. It all depends on the role I\u2019d end up doing, but that\u2019s the type of challenge I\u2019d be looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Thomas does transition into management when he stops racing this season, working closely with Brailsford \u2014 both Welshmen who have known each other for over 20 years \u2014 could make Ineos Grenadiers a more purposeful unit.<\/p>\n

This comes as team owner Ratcliffe is keen to further reduce his investment in the team<\/a>, and still hoping to seal a co-sponsorship deal with Total Energies.<\/p>\n

Thomas: \u2018It was a lot more \u00adstraightforward with Dave at the top\u2019
\n\"\"Thomas has become the soul of Ineos Grenadiers. His exit this winter will leave a void. (Photo: MAARTEN STRAETEMANS\/BELGA MAG\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As a rider, Thomas has never shied away from criticism of the team management.<\/p>\n

In 2022, when he finished third overall in the Tour, behind Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, after starting the race seen by his team as an equipier-de-luxe, the Welshman said: \u201cI always believed. Not many other people did, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cpeople making out that they think I\u2019m crap\u201d had given him added motivation.<\/p>\n

Brailsford quickly admitted that he and the team had underestimated Thomas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was in his shoes, I\u2019d have a wry smile on my face,\u201d Brailsford said of his fellow Welshman in 2022. \u201cHe\u2019s a natural mentor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, top young riders watch the older top riders,\u201d Brailsford added. \u201cFor the others to watch Geraint and see how he handles himself, they will take a huge amount from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s starting to sink in. Geraint Thomas embraces Team Principal Sir Dave Brailsford. Not a dry eye left in the house! #TDF2018<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/NSzi5GSPjG<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) July 28, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Last July, Thomas was even more outspoken about the direction a lackluster Ineos Grenadiers were heading in.<\/p>\n

Only months after Ratcliffe had acquired Manchester United, Thomas publicly bemoaned Brailsford\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot more \u00adstraightforward with Dave at the top,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was clarity with everything. There was a simple process, whereas now it\u2019s got a lot more complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a coalition government,\u201d he said of the management structure led by CEO John Allert. \u201cYou need a majority. Even if you didn\u2019t agree with stuff (before) at least there was a clear \u2018boom, boom, boom\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s it, move on \u2013 rather than this grey area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team insiders back Thomas for management
\n\"\"Thomas will ride his last Tour de France next month and retire later in the autumn. (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images))<\/p>\n

Allert waved away the media when approached on the final Friday of the Giro d\u2019Italia to discuss Thomas\u2019s career plans,<\/p>\n

Instead, it was sports director Zak Dempster who assessed where the team was at after a Giro in which Egan Bernal had been a key protagonist and finished seventh overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be frank: we suffered through last season,\u201d Dempster said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy to go through that and not be performing. When you suffer through a long period of under-performances, you force change.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s been a few guys who get grumpy and moany \u2026 I definitely don\u2019t want to turn into one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geraint Thomas knows the time is right to ride toward retirement: https:\/\/t.co\/3ssXn78eaP<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Velo (@velovelovelo__) May 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been perfect,\u201d Dempster said of the team\u2019s more impressive 2025 results, \u201cbut the reality is that we\u2019re not afraid to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dempster is also one of those who can envisage Thomas succeeding in management.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeraint\u2019s been a part of this team for longer than almost anyone,\u201d Dempster said. \u201cHe\u2019s been part of the great successes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he has got a lot to offer if he chooses to go into a role like that. It\u2019s really what role he wants to do. I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be as good (in that) as he was as a cyclist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether, given the dire situation at United and the continuing shortfall with the Grenadiers in grand tours, Ratcliffe is now making a canny move on the chess board or just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tough times don\u2019t last, but tough people do\u2019
\n\"\"Brailsford, Thomas, and Bernal led Ineos into the 2019 Tour de France. Could they do the same, but in different roles, in 2026? (Photo: Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images))<\/p>\n

Brailsford\u2019s continued presence at the top of Ineos Sport will give the team added gravitas.<\/p>\n

He knows better than anybody how much the team owner wants to win.<\/p>\n

When Ineos won the Tour with Egan Bernal in July 2019, Brailsford stood on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, expanding on his vision of sports management.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough times don\u2019t last,\u201d he said, \u201cbut tough people do. You can\u2019t do this job without a thick skin.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get some people in life who are haters. They will find something to hate all the time. But if you look at the successful people in life, they are not the haters. If you want to be a winner, hating is not the way to operate, to go about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn sports management,\u201d he added, \u201cyou need to be resilient and decide what\u2019s important to you and what you are prepared to take on board. It takes me back to my upbringing in a Welsh slate-mining village. They were tough guys, those miners, and you learn good values from them which have stood me in good stead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geraint Thomas will no doubt agree.<\/p>\n