Earthquake at INEOS Grenadier, top sporting official leaves the team

According to the British newspaper Daily Telegraph, Ineos Grenadiers Deputy Team Principal Rod Ellingworth has resigned from his position and left the team. Until today he was Dave Brailsford's right-hand man and the team's top sporting manager in Brailsford's absence in recent years.

INEOS Grenadier's top sporting official leaves the team

Rod Ellingworth, 51, joined the team from the creation of Team Sky in 2009, first as a coach and since 2013 as performance director. In 2020 he was team manager of Bahreim Merida, but returned to INEOS Grenadier in 2021 as top sporting manager despite Brailsford still being credited with the title of manager.

Although the reasons for the resignation have not been disclosed, it only reaffirms the turbulent internal climate within the team.

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Team Sky, now INEOS Grenadiers came to dominate world cycling during the 2010s, winning 7 Tour de France between 2012 and 2019, but the truth is that the last few seasons the team has not shone as expected and its last victory in a Grand Tour was the Giro d'Italia won by Egan Bernal in 2021.

Added to this is a 'clumsy' signing policy in which they have let great talents go and have not managed to sign any new superstars despite the countless rumours that Evenepoel or Roglic for next season were taken for granted. Even so, the team still has some of the best current riders like Tom Pidock, Pauline Ferrand Prevot or the Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez, who was on the verge of losing and recovered at the last minute.

Moreover, this news comes just ahead of what looks like the imminent entry of James Ratcliffe, owner of the INEOS team, at Manchester United. And it seems that Dave Brailsford will also join Ratcliffe in this new venture.