'Why not dream?' – Ineos face into a different kind of Tour de France

Ineos Grenadiers and their previous iteration Team Sky, won the Tour de France seven times between 2012 and 2019, but they set out for the 2025 edition mindful that the yellow jersey will end up elsewhere.

This Tour, like the last four, looks set to be a duel between Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), and Ineos’ GC leader Carlos Rodríguez will not be able to challenge their hegemony.

Rodríguez placed fifth on his debut in 2023 and seventh a year ago, but with riders like Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in the field, his path to the third spot on the podium looks complicated in the extreme.

Even so, directeur sportif Zak Dempster looked to strike an upbeat note when he spoke ahead of stage 1 of the Tour in Lille on Saturday.

“I mean, anything's possible, right?” Dempster said of Rodríguez’s prospects. “Like, he’s prepared as best he can, and he’s here. I think obviously you've got Remco and Jonas and Tadej, amongst others, but you've seen Carlos and the stage he won a few years ago."

“Last year, he was dealing with COVID for the latter part of the race, so it made it a real challenge, and he was a bit of a shell by the time we got to Nice. But he’s done everything he can to be ready, so why not dream?”

Rodríguez’s early season was interrupted by a broken collarbone sustained at the UAE Tour, but he returned to competition in time to take sixth place at the Tour de Romandie. That raised hopes for the Critérium du Dauphiné, but he was a subdued ninth there after a stint at altitude atop Mount Teide.

“I think he wanted a little bit more, but at the same time, he came straight down from Teide, and you just never know how you're going to respond,” Dempster said. “It’s not something new, coming down directly from altitude, so probably he and we were hoping for a little bit more, but it's in the past now, and we look forward.”

Still only 24, Rodríguez represents the future of Ineos’ Tour ambitions, at least until such time as they make a splash in the transfer market and seek to bring in an established Grand Tour champion.

“He’s a mature guy when you talk to him, but at the same time, he hasn't been around for that long, so it’s just a constant process of trying to improve things and do all the right things based on the demands of what racing is now,” Dempster said. “For sure, he's not just resting on his laurels and hoping to maintain where he's at, he's doing even more.”

Unlike in years past, however, the Ineos line-up is not devoted squarely to the general classification. The team will target stage victories across the three weeks, with Geraint Thomas hoping to sign off on his final Tour with a farewell victory. Filippo Ganna, meanwhile, will line out among the favourites for the Caen time trial on stage 5.

“Carlos has won a stage from the GC group before, so we definitely believe that, from the right situation, he can do that with a tactical movement on the right time,” Dempster said.

“We've also got some young exciting riders, and I think they form a really formidable team with Pippo, Tobias [Foss] and even Thymen [Arensman] from the right break. I think for us it's really going to be a matter of building momentum with stage results.” 

It was telling, however, that the primary focus of discussion at Ineos’ pre-Tour press conference was not Rodríguez’s prospects or even Thomas’ imminent retirement, but the return of Dave Brailsford to the management of the team following his departure from Manchester United.

“He’s a force of nature,” Dempster said. “I think you see when he speaks and delivers or even just his presence to the team, it makes a big difference. It’s good to have him back.”