Ineos Grenadiers may be at the centre of people’s minds at the moment, with their rumoured deal with TotalEnergies reportedly gathering momentum. However, whether that materialises or not, one thing that has been a concrete certainty for the British team in 2025 is their obvious change in tactics towards a more aggressive, attacking style, which has borne fruit in the form of 11 victories.
Instead of the typically sensible, rational, but at times uninspiring methods that they became known for during the Sky years, Ineos responded to their worst season ever in 2024 and widespread criticism by living up to the promise of racing a less risk-averse strategy, with the aim of returning to their former best.
It hasn’t always paid off, but on almost every big race day, even without a rider suited to the parcours, the black and red jerseys have been prominent and attempting to make the most of the day, not sitting back and waiting for the race to come to them.
At the Giro d’Italia, it’s this same style that lead DS Zak Dempster confirmed they will need to employ throughout the three weeks, in order to do “the best GC possible” with their two leaders Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman.
The Colombian is better placed after the Albanian Grande Partenza, although he is 48 seconds behind GC favourite Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in second overall, having lost time to the Slovenian and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in the stage 2 time trial.
With his near career-ending and life-threatening crash in early 2022, it’s been some time since the former Tour de France and Giro d’Italia winner has been on top form in a Grand Tour, however, Dempster and the team are confident 2025 can see Bernal back at his very best.
“We’re looking to do the most boring GC of all time,” said Dempster to Cyclingnews sarcastically, before playing ball when it came to the question of Ineos’ tactics.
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“With Egan and Thymen, there’s no secret that Ayuso and Roglič and a few of the other guys are maybe stronger in the TTs, but these guys are three-week specialists.
“We haven’t seen that from Egan yet [since his crash], but I fully believe that will become an option in the third week. The only way to do the best GC possible for us is by moving the race, so hopefully we’ve got the legs to do it.”
For Bernal, he’s still keeping positive, even after that major setback three years ago and suffering another one at the beginning of the season, when his flying start – doing the double at Colombian national championships – stalled after breaking his collarbone at the Clásica Jaén.
“I try to do my best, I enjoy what I do. I love my job and for me it’s not something difficult to do,” said Bernal into FloBikes‘ microphone in Vlorë.
“We have to find this balance of being realistic but also dreaming. We say in Colombia, I don’t know if the translation from Spanish is good, but ‘To arrive to the moon, you have to shoot the sun’, so I will try to do it.”
Arensman will likely play the secondary role to Bernal for now, having lost more than a minute on an opening day that made him “want to go home”, though he did bounce back partially on stage 2 in the time trial.
The team, like the Dutchman, were happy to put that torrid opener behind them and hope Arensman comes good as he has done in the past two editions of the Giro. He finished sixth overall in 2024 and 2023.
“Obviously, it’s a demanding start this and the first day wasn’t great for Thymen, but we’ve been here before and he’s done a good GC,” said Dempster.
“We just had to switch the focus onto the TT, and I think he took confidence from yesterday. He beat a lot of the good GC riders and it calmed the whole situation down after the first stage.”
Outside of their GC challengers, the stage 2 time trial victory for Josh Tarling should also inspire more of the aggressive tactics for Ineos, with the Welshman actually rewarding himself during stage 3 by getting into the six-man breakaway that led for over 100 kilometres.
With one win already secured, Dempster, of course, ensured that they would be trying to kick on with a second, third and hopefully more, and with confidence in several members of the eight-rider roster being options to do so.
“Obviously winning stages in this race was one of our objectives, so we’ve got one, and now we’re looking for the next one,” he said at the team bus in Vlorë.
“We’ve got some young, exciting riders, you forget often that Ben Turner has won races, he’s a guy that could really do well from breaks or reduced groups.
“We’ve got Josh Tarling, who, if you give him five metres, he’s pretty hard to get back… And there’s another time trial. You’ve just got to be ready to read the race and make the most of it.”
Ineos look to have really turned a corner in 2025, but this Giro, the first Grand Tour of the season, is the biggest test they’ve faced so far. Tarling has already put them on the right path to success, but Bernal or Arensman doing well overall and a few more stage wins will still be desired before the once world-beating British squad can call it an overwhelming success.
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