Ineos-Grenadiers hoping for Tour podium as Bernal looks to win title again in the future

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain : Ineos-Grenadiers have just a slim chance of placing a rider on the Tour de France podium, but the British team are counting on underdogs Egan Bernal and Tom Pidcock to spring a surprise on a race they dominated for almost a decade.

Only in two occasions, in 2020 and 2014, have they failed to make a top-three finish in Paris, winning the race seven times between 2012 and 2019 through Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Barnal.

Their decline, however, started in 2020 when then defending champion Bernal pulled out with back pains as Tadej Pogacar emerged as the new monster of road racing.

Thomas and Richard Carapaz finished third in 2022 and 2021 respectively but this year, the odds are long.

Rod Ellingworth, the team's racing director, however believes a podium finish on the Champs Elysees on July 23 is a reasonable ambition.

"We've got great capacity within the group and I think they're capable of making the podium if we get it right," Ellingworth told Reuters.

"I don't see why we couldn't. But we're looking at this race on two fronts. We want to take opportunities to try and win stages but also there's two GC (general classification) opportunities. One is Egan himself, we can't forget that his return to this race is phenomenal."

COMEBACK

Bernal is making his comeback on the Tour after a career-threatening crash during training in Colombia last year and while no time frame has been set for him to get back to the very top, the 26-year-old knows where he wants to go.

"We should praise the lad for what he's done. I'm really proud of the team and the support staff for what they've done but it's all about him, what he's done to get back. He wants to win this race again," said Ellingworth.

Bernal