No longer the team of reference, Ineos Grenadiers are aiming to return to the top. After changes at the top with the promotion of Dave Brailsford as head of the brand’s sporting projects and the farewell of Rod Ellingworth, the new team manager is John Allert, who is trying to materialise a major change of direction. Having become famous for its marginal gains that allowed it to lead the way for almost a decade, the now former British battleship needs to find new strategies to face the new teams at the top of the pyramid, namely UAE Team Emirates and Visma | Lease a Bike, with the latter returning from an extraordinary year that led them to a double record in terms of grand tours: victory of the three in the same year and a full podium at the Vuelta a España. Something that not even Team Sky had managed in their heyday.

“We have probably left behind the days of marginal gains and are now looking for maximal gains,” the new number one of the British structure commented on the team’s new strategies to the microphones of GCN. Having already arrived at the team a year ago, it is in the past few months, replacing Fran Millar as CEO and Ellingworth as team manager, that the British executive has been able to make his mark on the team, taking the reins.

‘My role is very clear,’ he adds, ‘In the eyes of ownership, I am responsible for everything that happens in this team. I don’t come from a performance-oriented background, which is why we have people with deep expertise and experience in this area, but ultimately my job with management is to set a strategy, take it to ownership, for approval, then they will give us the mandate to implement that strategy. And then I will be responsible for the results that come from that’.

If by now the new sporting chief of the Ineos world (with branches in many sports, including football and sailing) is Jean-Claude Blanc, Brailsford’s opinion is still missing. Despite officially stepping down from his management roles, the former Welsh deus ex machina remains a key advisor to the team and is in constant contact with Allen: ‘He is a fantastic source of advice,’ the latter points out. ‘He has perhaps unparalleled experience in elite cycling and I would be a fool if I didn’t tap into that source as often as I do.

Together, therefore, a new direction is taking shape: ‘We have understood better over the last few months that we have to be more effective in our strategies regarding what we want to achieve and more incisive in the use of information to improve what we do, not only regarding the athletes, but also the materials,’ he adds. There is no magic potion or simple answer. I think the days of marginal gains are behind us. We are now looking for maximal gains, which are difficult to achieve, but the only way to get there is by being innovative and disruptive.