Many champions, but not the super leader. At least as of today November 4, 2022. The Ineos Grenadiers that will come is called to a nice reshuffle of roles and captains. carapaz he greeted the company and Bernal it still doesn't give any certainties. Thomas he's not a child…
Matteo Tosatto It helps us find our way through the maze of what will happen with so many top-class athletes. Because While it is true that the leader of leaders is missing, it is also true that the level of the English squadron remains very high.
Matteo, as I said, there's a big turnover going on. Starting with Carapaz, who's moving to EF Education-Easypost...
Carapaz's departure is undoubtedly a loss, but our market, like last year's, is strongly focused on young players. We want to work with them calmly. Leave them alone and have them ready in 2-3 years.
But can a super team like yours afford not to have the right player for 2-3 years?
Well, it's a bit like in football: there are cycles that end. We won for a long time with Sky, and even with the move to Ineos, we immediately achieved a lot: a Tour and a Giro with Bernal. It's not that we don't have leaders. Yes, Thomas may not be young, but it's not that he lacks strength. And our young riders are top-notch. pidcock he is a very good rider. Sheffield He won three races in his first year. The brothers Hayter they're really going strong. Leo won the Giro under 23 and Ethan he has taken another step that also projects him towards very important races.
You mentioned Bernal. Of course, he needs to return to providing guarantees...
I told Gazzetta dello Sport a few days ago: We can't know how he will be, but we will start a winter preparation as if nothing had happened. As if the accident hadn't happened. And we'll see how he feels with normal preparation and the first few races. Of course, Egan is a question mark right now. We're aware of this, but at the same time we're confident. And we're confident because he's back on track. He made himself available to the team, he made his move. Clearly, he wasn't expected, nor were we asking him for results.
Let's get back to the youngsters, "Toso." The list is long. There's also Carlos Rodriguez and Tao Geoghegan Hart...
Carlos He's made another leap in quality. He's truly a great rider. And Tao hasn't performed well in recent seasons. But Overall I think we are competitive And we need to work on this. Perhaps even considering pairing them with more experienced players, like Castrovejo, Kwiato, Puccio... Right now we don't think we can win the Grand Tours... maybe, but if Egan were to come back Egan we would already have our leader. Not to mention that we can also do well in the classics with Pidcock. And on top of that we've got Arensmann, who is young but not very young, and could be a key player.
Pidcock for the classics, not the Grand Tours? Isn't he ready?
He can fight with his champion's mindset. And the numbers are on his side, too. But it also depends on him. Tom expressed his pleasure in competing in the classics. In the Grand Tours, he doesn't start from scratch. Last year he did the Vuelta, even though he hadn't prepared well for it, coming from the Olympics on mountain bike, and this year he did the Tour. At the Tour he was in the top 10 in the first two weeks, for me he can aim for the general classification and give us a hand.
What does it mean for Pidcock to finish in the general classification in a Grand Tour?
A top 5 or even a podium. Anyway, we're talking about a guy who dominated the Giro d'Italia. Then again, in three-week races, there's always the unknown factor of the third week. But, I repeat, he's already done two Grand Tours. We'll see in December when we talk to the guys what he has in mind.
We talked about Tao before, but can he return to the Giro level?
Everyone says he won a strange Giro and in part it's true because it was raced in October. However, he won it with numbers of absolute value, beating whoever won the Giro this year. In 2021, he wanted to do the Tour because he had never done it. And this year, things went wrong right from the start. Covid, then the flu at Tirreno, sick again before the Line of Business, Return he falls when he was in the top five… The fact is that two less than stellar seasons are enough here and with the generational turnover that is taking place it's easy to say that everything is going badly. He will have the right support from us and he himself knows that he will have to concentrate even more.
You said you still have to talk about plans, but given the route with so many time trials, is it fair to expect Thomas to be a leader at the Giro?
Meanwhile In the middle of the month, we in the performance group meet to understand Ineos' objectives, that is, where to win and where to get on the podium, and from there, ensure we get there with the best team. Usually we start from the great Tours, first of all the Giro and the Tour, then the Vuelta will come naturally. In December we'll talk to the riders to understand what they want. We care a lot about the Giro. In the last three years we have achieved two victories and a second place, so we will make sure to get there with the strongest team possible.
