Following the departure of Deputy Team Principal Rod Ellingworth and Roger Hammond, Coordinator of Sporting Management, a change is taking place at Ineos Grenadiers. The racing team has now announced that John Allert is to become the new CEO of Ineos Grenadiers. He has been working for the team since 2022 and was most recently Managing Director. Allert will report to Jean-Claude Blanc and Dave Brailsford at Ineos Sport, the overarching organisation for all sports managed by Ineos. Dave Brailsford had managed the team himself for many years, but is now responsible for other tasks at Ineos Sport. The financier of the team and all other Ineos sports projects is the British multi-billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, founder of the chemical company Ineos.
Ex-professional cyclists take over management positions at Ineos Grenadiers
Ineos Grenadiers has filled two further positions with ex-professional Steve Cummings as the new "Director of Racing" and Imanol Erviti, who recently ended his career after 19 years with Movistar and its predecessor teams, as the new Sporting Director. Cummings also has a history with the team - he was already sporting director at Ineos Grenadiers and was under contract as a rider with Sky in 2010 and 2011. Now he has been given a slightly more strategic role.
Ineos Grenadiers has been further strengthened with the appointment of Dr Scott Drawer, who has previously worked for the team, as its new Performance Director. Drawer brings with him experience from other top sports organisations such as England Rugby and UK Sport. Most recently he worked as Head of Sport at the internationally renowned Millfield School.
Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates overtake Ineos Grenadiers
The change at Ineos Grenadiers comes as no surprise. In mid-November, the team announced the departure of Rod Ellingworth at the end of the year. Ellingworth was already part of the team when it was founded in 2009 and, with a brief interruption from 2020 to 2021, worked for the British racing team throughout. The reason for the separation is probably also the unsuccessful transfer policy, for which Ellingworth is partly responsible. The team has so far only secured three new signings for 2024 (Oscar Rodriguez, Andrew August and Tobias Foss) and will therefore have to compensate for the departure of five riders in the coming season, including Daniel Felipe Martinez (to Bora-Hansgrohe) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (to Lidl-Trek).
It remains to be seen whether the British team can return to the successes of the 2010s under new leadership. Under the Sky name, the team dominated the Tour de France almost at will. Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal secured a total of seven Tour victories between 2012 and 2019. Ineos Grenadiers has since been overtaken by Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates and no longer plays top fiddle in the Grand Tours.
Lukas Niebuhr
Working student
