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It’s make or break for Ineos Grenadiers and Caleb Ewan
With the new year comes the turn of a new leaf. Or, if you’re Ineos Grenadiers, you’re probably hoping for a whole new plant instead. The team’s worst ever season may be in the rearview mirror but still at the forefront of minds, the once-dubbed ‘super-team’ struggling to amass just 16 victories across a stacked calendar.
The team’s latest attempt to get back to winning ways is signing Jayco-AlUla outcast Caleb Ewan on a one-year deal in a make-or-break season for the pair. Will they keep each other afloat or will the ships sink?
Changing fortunes
Ineos Grenadiers have been in decline for a few years, coinciding with a shift in their identity. No more the Grand Tour dominators of old, they are resigned these days to being podium potentials at best with the rise of Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel.
They cannot get things to click into place elsewhere either. The Classics are a cruel mistress, with cobblestones dishing out punctures and crashes, but the type of strongman that thrives in these conditions – like an Ian Stannard-esque figure – has been missing from the team for some time. Tom Pidcock, who won Amstel Gold Race last year in what was Ineos’s biggest one-day victory to date, has stepped down a level in order to leave the team for Q36.5.
Then there’s sprinting, an art that combines a solid leadout train with breakneck speeds in a chaos of bodies. Here they’re notably absent too, their last fastman to fit the mould of this disciple being Elia Viviani, who has not won a high-profile sprint finish since 2019, and even that was for Cofidis.
Ewan comes aboard at a pivotal moment in his career. He is now 30 years old and not the shining star of the sprinting world that he once was, someone who could challenge Mark Cavendish at his peak with a flair of aerodynamic contortions to get low on the bike.
The Australian has notched victories at all three Grand Tours and has twice finished second at Milan-San Remo. However, he hasn’t won at a three-week race since the Giro d’Italia in 2021, when, off the back of two victories in quick succession, he abandoned in pursuit of wins at the Tour. However this would not come to pass due to a broken collarbone.
His last taste of victory came at the Vuelta a Burgos in 2024. He beat a limited sprinting field to cross the line ahead of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Roger Adrià, but if bigger sprint names were there, would the result have been the same?
The younger guns
The rise of new sprinting stars has snuffed Ewan’s sprinting success in recent years. His win rate began to taper off alongside his Lotto-Dstny team’s relegation from the WorldTour and the likes of Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier and Jonathan Milan coming to the fore.
Philipsen and Alpecin-Deceuninck stepped up to the WorldTour and he blossomed, with an abundance of wins including the Tour de France green jersey and Milan-San Remo. Milan has been on fire for Lidl-Trek too, scoring big at the Giro d’Italia last season.
Philipsen and Milan are 26 and 24 years old respectively, so their ceiling is yet to be hit. Alpecin-Deceuninck boasts unmatched firepower for their sprint train in Mathieu van der Poel and Lidl-Trek has Simone Consonni and Edward Theuns. A result of their lack of star sprinter so far, Ineos Grenadiers hasn’t had to overexert themselves in this area to date. Big engine Filippo Ganna will likely be utilised in this role and Geraint Thomas is no stranger to leadouts either.
You can have Plan A-Z set up in cycling and have none of them come to fruition. Good sprinters also possess the ability to hop on more preferable wheels at a moment’s notice in the fight for victory, something Ewan does have experience in. The first issue to be addressed is the weakness of a true leadout train in comparison to the established ones. If Ineos falter, however, at least he knows how to adjust a plan at the last second.
Last chance saloon
The sprinting world moves on quickly. Its previous crop of sprinters such as Dylan Groenewegen and Fabio Jakobsen are seemingly past their peak, and Ewan himself comes from the class before that. At the Giro last year, he couldn’t compete with the best – not through injury or illness either, he was simply unable to operate on the same level as Milan or Tim Merlier.
The new scenery with old friends could benefit him and net Ineos Grenadiers a smattering of victories if things click into place. Ewan says his goal is ‘to return to winning big races. It’s been a few years since I’ve won some of those major events but I firmly believe I have it in me.’
It likely won’t revive his career in the sense of pushing Philipsen or Milan off top dog status, but he still has an equally dogged determination.
This alone won’t push him out in front though and his alliance with Ineos is a case of two forces not what they once were. Now, at least, Ineos Grenadiers have a card to play in sprints, which puts them in a slightly better position than they were previously.
If this year doesn’t pan out, Ineos will likely revert away from sprinting again and Ewan will once more be on the move. As such it’s likely now or never for a sprinter at risk of being left behind permanently.
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