Confirmed: Tour de France Mastermind Rod Ellingworth Leaves Ineos Grenadiers – insightdaily.in
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Rod Ellingworth, deputy team principal of Ineos Grenadiers, has resigned from the team.
Ineos Grenadiers confirmed to Velo on Friday night that the Brit is leaving the team that he masterminded to seven Tour de France victories.
“The Ineos Grenadiers can confirm that deputy team principal, Rod Ellingworth, will be leaving the team at the end of the year. No further comment will be made at this stage,” read the note.
The Telegraph broke the news Friday morning that the 51-year-old is leaving Ineos Grenadiers amid what is a period of tension and uncertainty at the former grand tour-dominating super-squad.
A fistful of leading climbers are out the exit door this off-season, and head boss Dave Brailsford, who also acts as director of sport at Ineos, is touted for a future leadership role at Manchester United. Ineos business-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is currently making moves to take control of 25 percent of the renowned soccer team.
Ellingworth’s exit will mark an important turning point in the history of the Sky/Ineos franchise.
The veteran staffer acted as the brain behind all seven of the squad’s Tour de France victories and was central to instilling its then-groundbreaking “marginal gains” ethic.
Ellingworth had been a central figure to British Cycling’s emergence as a power of track cycling in the early 2000s, and was recruited to join Team Sky for its 2010 debut season.
He left for Bahrain McLaren the winter after Egan Bernal won the maillot jaune in 2019, yet returned to his former team in 2021 with a boosted role of deputy principal.
His return to Ineos Grenadiers came at a tipping-point for the squad.
Jumbo-Visma and UAE Emirates found new levels and Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard put a halt to Sky’s steamroller progress through the Tour de France.
The 2023 season again saw Ineos Grenadiers struggle to hold the wheel of its new rivals. Geraint Thomas came within a day of winning the Giro d’Italia in May, but the team was otherwise largely left out of the frame in classification racing.
2024 could be even more difficult for the team that once took Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome to the top of the sport.
Tao Geoghegan Hart, Luke Plapp, Pavel Sivakov, Dani Martinez, and Ben Tulett all depart this winter to leave the squad short of stellar climbers to lead its ambitions or support longtime captain Thomas.
Sport director Matteo Tosatto also moves on next year.
The 2024 season is set to put Ineos Grenadiers into transition as it focuses on developing young talents like A.J. August, Carlos Rodríguez, and Josh Tarling, while pushing the potential of Tom Pidcock and the returning Bernal.
“The main thing is, we’ve got a really young team now. They just need a bit of time to develop and get better. Obviously, we also have myself and a few older guys, but it’s not just one quick fix,” Thomas recently told Rouleur.
“The team has definitely had a transition with everything that’s gone on with the staff more than anything. [Founding CEO] Fran Millar left and Rod left for a bit, and Dave had health issues and his role changed and Tim Kerrison [performance coach – ed] moved on. It was a lot of change. It’s heading in the right direction, but it’s hard to turn it around overnight.”
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