Team Ineos Grenadiers has set its sights on its immediate future, and has done so with the inclusion of the I have to team up (Ineos Grenadiers Racing Academy) in the project. A development team, the British team was one of the few not to have one in-house yetInitially, as Dario Cioni also explained when the project was presented. Twelve athletes from every continent, with a majority of five British riders. In this group there is also room for two Italians: Davide Frigo and Nicolas Milesi.
The youngest of the two Frigo brothers arrives in his first year as an under 23 and will face it with the I have to team up Ineos GrenadiersA big leap, as he himself tells us, but one that he's currently absorbing well.
«We are training well in this second retreat – says Davide Frigo – We are in Oliva, a few hundred meters from the seaIt's very windy but otherwise everything is going great, the hotel is super equipped and the team also brought a chef and he takes care of the kitchen."
It's not just you guys I have to team up At that time…
From the under-23 team, we are all here except for one Australian boy who stayed at home to train. Then with us there are another twelve or thirteen riders from the WorldTour team but we train separately.It happened a couple of times during the December retreat that we rode with them, but otherwise the activities remained separate. These days I'm sharing a room with an African boy, Milkias Maekele, who broke his arm but still came for some check-ups.
Have you settled in?
It's always getting better, the first retreat was something huge, gigantic. I come from a junior team where the staff was made up of four or five members and then there were us boysIn December, at the first retreat, we were more than a hundred people.
You're in an international environment, can you feel it?
The organization, each person has a role and a task to perform. There are so many of us but there is no one standing stillNow I'm slowly improving my English too. I came from a school level and the first impact was tough. Luckily my sports director of reference is Cioni which is helping me a lot.
What has struck you most in these first few months?
The organizational and management side. I happened to speak to a sports director and told him I'd miscommunicated the size of his rest clothes. He went to tell the warehouse manager and now at the second collection I found a box with new clothes in the correct size in front of the room.I just thought, “Wow, they leave nothing to chance here.”
Are you finding your rhythm in your training too?
In this second training camp we are focusing more on pedaling and putting in many hours in the saddle. Instead, in December there were more meetings and gatherings with the various members of the staff.
What do they say to you about the I have to team up?
They were mostly general meetings to talk about the team, then we had a meeting with the doctor and the nutritionist who gave us some advice. Nothing big, basic advice, but when you have a lot of young people it's right to start almost from scratch.
Is the Ineos atmosphere in the air?
Is back David Brailsford and obviously he was also there in the December retreat. He has a very strong personality, when he enters a room you can feel it, you can notice itNot that he does it on purpose, but he has a unique charisma that captivates. He took over the team and said that within three or four years they want to get back to the level that competes at a teams like ours.
Have you already talked about your path within the team?
Something, yes, but more specific individual meetings will arrive in the next few days. This year I still have school, so until June I will have to manage both commitments.The team is very happy that I didn't drop out and supports me in this. They told me not to worry and that until I graduate we will take advantage of the opportunities available..
How will you work?
I'm taking advantage of the retreat days, just like I did during the Christmas holidays, to train and put some endurance into my legs. For the rest I already know that I can't run the Giro Next Gen because it will coincide with the final exam. I would like to participate in the Tour de l'Avenir, since it was opened to the public in 2026 I have to team up.
Let's go back to the beginning, how did the contact with Ineos come about?
Cioni had heard from my brother Marco shortly after the Italian time trial championship, it was the end of June. He had told him he was interested in me and had mentioned that Ineos was going to open a I have to team up next season (2026, ed.). Things then dragged on for a bit, but I always had faith.
After your last year as a junior did you ever expect to enter a I have to team up?
It all happened so quickly. Until 2025, I hadn't seen any great results. With the first victory of the season I felt my awareness of my abilities grow. and to be able to think about such a step. Now I'm here and I want to do my best to stay here and enjoy it to the fullest.
