Geraint Thomas, Netcompany-INEOS's director of racing, said the loss of Oscar Onley has changed both the team's selection and how it intends to race the 2026 Tour de France. Speaking at the team's pre-race online media session on Wednesday with a variety of journalists and crackly microphones, where Velora Cycling was in attendance, Thomas said that the focus this year will be more on freedom with stage wins as well as the GC.
"The GC isn't like a sin, which for this team it has been for a number of years," Thomas said. "There's numerous ways to race the GC as well. You can sit in there and you can follow and lose a bit of time every day. Or you can just throw a bit of caution to the wind and go after it and go for stages."
Onley was intended to be the main GC focus for the Tour de France before he crashed out of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes after dislocating his shoulder. Thomas acknowledged that as soon as the news arrived, the team had to rebuild its objectives. "You need to dust yourself off and look forward," he said. "You can't wallow in what could have been or what should have been."
That left Thomas and the rest of the team with a big task where Thomas and the rest of the team sat down to decide who should go to the Tour that would bring balance and opportunities across all three weeks. Thomas said that the team was put together to race, not to just take part: "We just want to be fully in the race. We don't want to be passengers and we want to be active and really fighting for those wins."
Barcelona team time trial offers an instant test
The opening stage on Saturday, a 19.6km team time trial from the Parc del Fòrum to the Montjuïc climb, will be the first test of the new approach. The team come with a stacked squad of TT stars with yellow an obvious focus on day one, Thomas said: "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't (a goal)."
The 2026 format counts each rider's individual finishing time rather than the traditional fifth-rider rule, which increases the value of having strong climbers who can push on the final ascent to the Olympic stadium area. Thomas said the team had trained the discipline from the start of the year and viewed that investment as a "no-brainer" given the opportunity.
Josh Tarling, who fractured his collarbone in a separate incident on the same stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes that ended Onley's Tour hopes, said his recovery had been smooth and he felt largely back to normal. The former European time trial champion missed the British national championships in Aberystwyth, near his hometown of Aberaeron, to recover but has trained on the turbo and completed circuit sessions with the squad.
Tarling said the team's TTT approach had shifted. "I think we're a lot more aggressive now," he said. "A couple of years ago we were quite conservative and looking after each other, and now we are a lot more aggressive, especially at the start, and just really hit out early and not be afraid to lose people."
Thymen Arensman is a key rider in the GC chances for the team and comes into the race after finishing fourth in the final GC of the Giro d'Italia, his second consecutive Giro-Tour double. The Dutch rider said the Grand Tour double is mentally demanding but that his 2025 experience means he has learnt lessons to hopefully perform better this year. "It's also just another bike race, really, and just another three nice weeks in France with these boys," Arensman said.
Egan Bernal said he was there to add to the team's collective climbing depth. "A big deal for me to be back in this race," Bernal said. "I'm ready to race, I'm ready to be aggressive." Speaking in Spanish, he described a role focused on teamwork and instinct in technically demanding stages rather than a protected GC position.
Kévin Vauquelin comes in fresher than the Giro riders and reinforced Thomas's message about flexibility. "I think we have many cards to be offensive and really compete on this Tour de France," Vauquelin said, adding that the team's approach would be day by day.
Thomas finished things off adding that there isn't a single goal for the team at the race that would define the three weeks. "To stand here and say three stages would be success would be wrong," he said. "It's just about how we race, how we represent ourselves and the team, and just get stuck in."
The first team rolls off the start ramp in Barcelona at 17:05 local time on Saturday, and you can use our interactive Tour de France stage guide to see exactly when to tune in.
Cover image credit: Gaëtan Flamme
