'You can't sugarcoat it' - Luke Rowe says Ineos Grenadiers are 'underperforming'

Ineos Grenadiers road captain Luke Rowe has said his team is "underperforming", and may need a number of years to regain its previous dominance.  

In a candid interview, the 34-year-old said his team has found itself "on the back foot", chasing results while being surpassed by other teams. 

Ineos Grenadiers are on course for their least successful season this year, in terms of victories, since the team was created as Sky Procycling in 2010. The team has so far managed 14 wins in 2024, down from 38 in 2023 and 39 in 2022. 

"You can't really sugarcoat it. It's a high-budget team, with some very well-paid bike riders – some riders who are paid to win big bike races – and it's just not happening," Rowe told Eurosport's ‘The Breakaway’. 

"I think it's time to just look in the mirror and realise we are underperforming. We're not delivering to expectations, and I don't think it falls on one person's shoulders. For a long period of time, the team was the best team in the world, by a distance, and that's not being arrogant."

Between 2012 and 2019, the British team won seven out of eight Tours de France, thanks to Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal. Its best-placed rider at the race this year was Carlos Rodríguez, who finished seventh. The team's last Grand Tour victory came in 2021, when Bernal won the Giro d'Italia. 

"I think to be at the top is one thing, but to stay at the top is another," Rowe said. "You're either the hunted or you're doing the hunting. We were hunted by a lot of teams for a long time, and they were playing catch-up. Now it's role reversal, and we're on the back foot a bit. We're having to chase the top teams. I think not just one team has overtaken us, I think a few have." 

Speaking ahead of this year's Tour, Thomas said UAE Team Emirates and Visma-Lease a Bike were "bigger favourites" than Ineos Grenadiers.

"Let's be honest, there are other teams that have more of a weight to take of the race than us, and [have] bigger favourites," the 2018 Tour winner said. "I don’t think the pressure's on us. What I'm saying is we're not going to ride like Sky, we're not going to be in one train on the front."

Ahead of the 2025 season, Ineos Grenadiers have made reinforcements to their squad, bringing in reliable domestique Bob Jungels from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, promising Brit Sam Watson from Groupama-FDJ, and the current under-23 world champion Axel Laurance from Alpecin-Deceuninck.

There has been speculation around Tom Pidcock, the Olympic mountain bike champion and winner of this year's Amstel Gold Race, who was the subject of reports last month suggesting he might leave the team. The 25-year-old has three years left on his current contract with Ineos Grenadiers, but has been rumoured with a move to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

Rowe, who is set to retire at the end of 2024, is optimistic the team can return to the top step as world cycling's prevailing force.

"I know the management, I know the owners well, and they're not the type of people who will roll over and get their tummies tickled," the Welshman said. "They're there for a fight, they want to come back, they're going to do the right things, put the right people in the right places.

"In one or two years, can they turn it around? No, I think it needs to be more long-term. Certainly in five years I see them being one of the top, dominant teams in the world of professional cycling."