'Like a kid in a sweet shop' – Brailsford back in fold at Ineos for Tour de France

Dave Brailsford will return to an active role in the management of Ineos Grenadiers during the Tour de France following the recent decision to reduce his involvement at Manchester United.

Brailsford was team principal of Ineos Grenadiers – previously Team Sky – but he stepped away from the position following Ineos owner Jim Ratcliff’s purchase of a minority stake at Manchester United in 2024.

In June, it was reported that Brailsford would be sidelined from his role at Manchester United as part of a reshuffle following their disappointing 2024-25 season. Brailsford has officially returned to the position of director of sport across all of Ineos’ sporting interests, and Ineos Grenadiers CEO John Allert has now confirmed that he will have an active role with the cycling team.

Ineos Grenadiers were the 23rd and final team to announce their Tour de France line-up, and Daniel Benson reported that the delay was due in part to the input of the returning Brailsford. In a video call with reporters on Wednesday evening, Allert denied that Brailsford had delayed the selection but acknowledged that he is again closely involved with the team.

“Dave’s definitely coming to the Tour and he’s getting stuck right in – he loves it,” Allert said. “I was talking to him earlier today and he’s like a kid in a sweet shop talking about climbs and getting back to the mountains. For him that’s the battlefield that he knows and loves. 

“We’ve welcomed him back into the team with open arms and he’s a kind of a not-so-secret weapon, I guess, for us to use and we plan on using him to the fullest extent we can. It’s great to have him back.”

Asked if Brailsford would be present for the entirety of the Tour, Allert said it was “unclear,” but added that he likely to be on site for most of the race. “To be honest, I think he'll be there whenever we need him, when he feels that he can be adding the most value,” Allert said. “I know that his travel plans are basically to be available for the whole thing, and I think he'll be there for a lot of it.”

Brailsford was knighted in 2012 for his success with Team Sky and British Cycling, but his reputation suffered in the wake of a UK Anti-Doping investigation and a parliamentary inquiry into practices at both organisations, which he claimed had a “zero tolerance” policy on doping.

Former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman was later found guilty by a medical tribunal of ordering testosterone “knowing or believing” it was for an unnamed rider to improve their performance.

Ineos and its previous iteration Team Sky won the Tour seven times in eight years between 2012 and 2019, with Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal all carrying the yellow jersey to Paris. 

The team has struggled at the Tour in the 2020s, however, with their lone podium finishes coming from Richard Carapaz and Geraint Thomas, who finished third in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Last year, Carlos Rodríguez was the team’s highest finisher in seventh overall, and a place in the top five in Paris would appear to be the very summit of his realistic ambitions for this year’s Tour. 

“It’s obvious we want the Tour, but there's no point in just saying you want to win the Tour,” Allert said. “You’ve got to do something about it, and I think in part, that’s why it’s great to welcome Dave back into the fold. Dave loves a performance challenge, and this is the biggest one there is.”

Allert was appointed CEO of Ineos Grenadiers in late 2023 following the departure of Rod Ellingworth. He had previously served as managing director, having joined Ineos after a long stint with the McLaren group.

“Everyone at Ineos wants to win the Tour, but we've got to do more than we're doing, clearly, to get better than the people that are dominating it at the moment. That’s why we're getting stuck in and that's our mission.”

In the Sky era, the team had the largest budget in cycling, but they have since been overtaken, most notably by UAE Team Emirates-XRG. The arrival of TotalEnergies as a jersey sponsor is part of Ineos’ attempt to increase their budget to compete with UAE. 

“I'd like to think that from 2010, we've kind of earned the right to be called a super team, but it's a super team that needs to win more,” Allert said. “It’s not cheap to win and budgets keep going up and we’re not at the top of that heap anymore. But it's not just about money, it's also about competence and strategy and resources and all those good things and hard work.”

As well as Brailsford’s return to the fold, it has been reported that Geraint Thomas will have a role in Ineos Grenadiers management following his retirement at the end of this season, but the Welshman played a straight bat when asked about the matter on Wednesday.

“Maybe behind the scenes we're talking about stuff, but at the minute I'm just concentrating on just doing this race,” Thomas said. “I’ll worry about the ‘afterlife,’ as Ed Clancy calls it, afterwards.”