Geraint Thomas said his first year as Director of Racing at Netcompany Ineos was disappointing, saying “it definitely wasn’t good” on his and Luke Rowe’s podcast Watts Occurring on November 4, and distinguished the number of victories from their significance.
“Even though results weren't particularly, you know, sensational, we had a lot of wins, but they were like smaller wins. It wasn't like any big wins really,” Thomas said. He separated that from the rebuild. New riders needed time to gel, he said, and executing even part of a race plan counted as improvement.
“I think they all learned then the next phase of that plan and I think they'll all take that forward and it's part of that growing,” Thomas said. He described the starting point as 20% of the team's former level, a figure he said he chose for illustration.
“You can't just go from 20 back to to 80 straight away. It's like climbing a ladder, isn't it? You can't go from the second rung of a ladder straight to eight. You got to go to three, four, five,” Thomas said.
“And I think like we've gone up the ladder a couple of steps for sure. We slipped a few times as well, but that's all part of it, isn't it?”
It was a marked improvement in success this season compared to last as the team managed to win 36 races compared to 28 in 2025, but finished eighth in the UCI team ranking for the second year running. The team took one Grand Tour stage with Filippo Ganna's Giro d'Italia time trial. Thymen Arensman finished fourth at the Giro, 37 seconds off the podium. Oscar Onley was sixth at the Vuelta a España and won the young rider classification after a difficult start with the team. At the Tour de France the best finisher was Egan Bernal in 20th.
Some riders did shine, with Dorian Godon showing his class with five WorldTour wins including two stages at the Volta a Catalunya and two stages at the Tour de Romandie. He also took a very impressive win at Gran Piemonte after being dropped just 10km earlier. "I've had a lot more chances than the other years," Godon said afterwards.
In the Tour Auvergne–Rhône-Alpes team time trial, Ineos led at both checks. When Onley dropped his chain, the team slowed on radio instructions to wait for him and lost by nine seconds to Visma–Lease a Bike. At the Tour, Thomas estimated the team had suffered 10 or 11 punctures by stage 15, while it reviewed the tyre recommendations its engineers sent to directors each day.
The team has presented its new aggression as a cultural change. Before the Tour, Thomas said the team did not want to be "passengers", and Joshua Tarling said the team time trial approach had moved from "quite conservative" to "not be afraid to lose people".
