Somehow, I missed that story in the Tour; and another water bottle was the culprit. Must be a better way to carry water and not cause these accidents?

markb110 wrote:

Looked to be a blue Grenadier in the last 3k of the Giro today....

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It looks like bike mounts go directly on the roof rather than requiring separate bars or even a rack

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https://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/8798/ineos-...newsletter

"The budget of Ineos Grenadiers broke €50 million for the first time in 2019, the team's latest accounts have reported.

First analysed by Inrng, the accounts for Tour Racing Limited, the holding company of the British WorldTour team, were released on Companies House and saw a vast bump in their budget.

The team operated on an annual budget of €50.78 million for the 2019 season, an 18% increase from 2018's €42.95 million budget, as pointed out by Inrng. This saw the team's budget effectively double from the 2012 season, the first year of Tour de France triumph, where the team operated on a €26.3 million total, and the biggest physical increase in expenditure since the team's inception.

Last season saw the team's previous lead sponsor Sky depart the team after almost a decade in the sport. The broadcasting company was replaced by petrochemical company Ineos, headed by British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

This switch in sponsor to Ineos also saw the team's accounts reported in Euros as opposed to Pounds, again as pointed out by Inrng, as the company operates in Euros despite being a British company.

Unlike years gone by, these most recent accounts did not include a detailed breakdown of how the budget was formulated. In 2019, for example, the 2018 accounts showed that Sky provided £27 million of the team's £38 million budget while £7.8 million was provided by performance sponsors such as Castelli, Pinarello, Castelli and Science in Sport.

It has also been some time since the team revealed any staff and rider costs, in effect, the wage bill. The last wage bill report was in 2016 when the team reported £24m in 'staff and rider costs'.

This figure is undoubtedly higher now with multiple Grand Tour riders on its books – Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz and Chris Froome – and the signing of multiple World Champion Rohan Dennis.

While Froome may be departing for 2021, the incoming signings of Tom Pidcock, Richie Porte, Dani Martinez and Laurens de Plus suggest the wage bill is only likely to increase in the future.

As for 2019's €50 million budget, the 18% increase in spending was likely down to Bernal signing a lucrative five-year deal with the team and Thomas extending his contract off the back of his Tour success in 2018.

It was reported earlier this year that five of the top 10 best paid riders in the world raced for Ineos Grenadiers – Froome, Thomas, Bernal, Carpaz and Michal Kwiatkowski. It is believed the combined salaries of these five riders amount to roughly €15.3 million per season.

For owner Ratcliffe these figures are manageable considering the expenditure of his other sporting project, French football club Nice. The middling team's yearly budget totals £19 million per year despite the team sitting in eighth in Ligue 1.

To contextualise Ineos Grenadiers's €50 million budget, Tour de France rivals Jumbo-Visma announced in 2019 that it would be upping its 2020 budget to €20 million, under half of its rivals."

Seem to like sitting on it:

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INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) Tweeted:
A rest day postcard from the #Giro 🖼️ https://t.co/cKcmr7PrNZ https://twitter.com/INEOSGrenadiers/status...74976?s=20



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Angel lights?

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INEOS Grenadier (@INEOSGrenadier) Tweeted:
Approaching the end of week two with three stage wins and two second places. @NarvaezJho and the @INEOSGrenadiers  showing true grit and determination.
#Giro #BuiltOnPurpose #INEOStogether https://t.co/Uk37tq2iaa https://twitter.com/INEOSGrenadier/status/...72386?s=20

Last edited by Supacat on 19th Oct 2020 12:46pm. Edited 3 times in total

Hi Supercat

During the time trial on Saturday the Grenadier was following the team car following Filippo Ganna.

Did not see a lot of it, for some reason the director was more interested in the cyclist.....

Vuelta kicks off tomorrow. Grenadier's last chance to grab some respectability from a disastrous season. Also Froome's last race for them but I think he is riding for Carapaz as his form isn't there yet. WARNING.
This post may contain sarcasm.

To be honest with you Zed, I think that the Grenadier (Sky) team has been more fun to watch without a team leader.

Some of the individuals have really shown their talents without being relegated to procession status keeping the team leader towards to front on the climbs.

As much as I like Thomas, following his track career and his last book is a great read, the fact is he is a super domestic with a history of crashing.

When he was joint team leader with Landa at the Giro a few years back they both crashed at the same time. He has had some spectacular crashes on the TOF.

He won the TOF as Froomywas not on point that year but still good enough to offer support and take the crap from some of the supporters and kept the heat of Thomas.

During the Dauphina earlier this year one stage told the story of the three (leaders). Froome did so much work dragging the team up a climb and took a hell of a long turn at the front and even went back for seconds, Thomas was on the front for no more than two minutes before pulling off. Bernal eventually failed on the day because the team where following their tactic of protecting the leader even though here Bernal was not in the leaders jersey, the race leader in turn was letting Sky burn themselves out.

On the Giro , Grenadiers are up to five stage wins, in the old days it was about the leaders jersey, now they are racing and it is great to watch.

Being good to watch depends on your point of view but I agree Ineos failures have made races more o pen for all the teams and riders. Chasing stage wins when you have a €50/60 million budget isn't good enough though. Especially when your 2 biggest rivals have pulled out of the race. Brailsford would be tearing his hair out, if he had any. WARNING.
This post may contain sarcasm.

100% what Mark said!

This season has been far from a disaster for Ineos. I think they’ve been far more entertaining to watch going for stage wins without having to protect a GC rider. It really does show the strength & depth in their rider roster, which is probably not appreciated enough when they’re all riding for a sole leader.

We’ll see what happens at the Vuelta, but I wonder if their recent stage wins will make them rethink a little bit on how they ride that. ‘08 Defender 90 Hardtop

Well that was great. So happy for Tao. WARNING.
This post may contain sarcasm.

And it's a wrap for this year.

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INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) Tweeted:
As we head into the final day of the season, thank you for your support in a year like no other.

Stay safe. Look after each other.

The INEOS Grenadiers https://t.co/GTFd5jgN11 https://twitter.com/INEOSGrenadiers/status...52640?s=20

End of era with Fromey