Ineos Grenadiers team for Tour de France 2021 | Sticky Bottle

Egan Bernal finishes stage 20 of the 2019 Tour knowing he's won the race. The man beside him, Geraint Thomas, will lead Ineos Grenadiers into this year's Tour as Ineos Grenadiers boss Dave Brailsford said Bernal needs to find his love of racing again

Ineos Grenadiers has set out its plans for the Grand Tours in the season ahead and the big news is that Geraint Thomas – and not Egan Bernal or Richard Carapaz – has been designated as team leader at the Tour de France.

Bernal, the winner of the Tour in 2019 before fading away
with a back injury last year, will ride the Giro d’Italia. Team boss Dave
Brailsford said the Colombian needed to refocus on being happy when racing.

Brailsford did not rule out the possibility of Bernal
also riding the Tour. But his participation in that event would only be decided
after his performance at the Giro was assessed.

With only three weeks between the end of the Giro and start of the Tour this year – as the Tour is brought forward again to suit the Olympics - it is unlikely many big name riders will ride both Giro and Tour in 2021.

*Dave Brailsford has made some big calls and is clearly keen to start getting the best out if his expensive Colombian Egan Bernal, starting with getting a smile back on his face*

Eddie Dunbar, the only Irish rider on Ineos Grenadiers,
will look to start his second Grand Tour this year and with only four of the
eight-rider Giro team named, he may get a chance to ride that race.

However, both the line-ups for the Giro and the Vuelta
were left much more open by Brailsford than the Tour team, which looks almost
completely decided at this point.

Brailsford, speaking to the media at a press opportunity
yesterday, said Bernal had achieved a lot of success young.

However, after a hard year last year due to his back
injury and abandoning the Tour, he need to go back to basics and refocus on
enjoying racing.

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“When Egan came to the team he had a big smile whenever he raced. The first thing you thought when you saw him was his big smile,” Brailsford said. “It is important that he find that joy of racing again. It all comes down to getting that smile back.”

Eddie Dunbar will hope to start his second Grand Tour this year after doing well in the Giro two years ago. The Ineos Grenadiers Tour de France team is packed with talent and there is intense competition for the last one or two places. But the selections for the Giro is more open

Brailsford said the two long TT stages at the Tour de France this year meant it
suited Welshman Thomas best and he backed the 35-year-old to win a second
yellow jersey.

As well as Thomas at the Tour, Carapaz will also ride as
will Giro champion Tao Geoghegan Hart, last year’s 3^rd placed rider
Richie Porte and likely Rohan Dennis.

Brailsford strongly suggested Michał Kwiatkowski and
Jonathan Castroviejo will also be in the Tour team, which would just leave one
place open.

Bernal will go to the Giro apparently one of the trio of
general classification riders; the other two being Pavel Sivakov and new
signing Dani Martinez. World TT champion Filippo Ganna will also go back to the
Giro, having won four stages there last year.

New signing Adam Yates will target La Vuelta while one of
the team’s other new signings, Tom Pidcock (21), is also expected to ride the
Spanish Grand Tour.

If Bernal does not ride the Tour, he is expected to ride
the Vuelta. The strongest rides in the Tour team – including, at a minimum, Thomas
and Carapaz – were also expected to ride La Vuelta.

Brailsford added it was likely several riders who made the Giro or Tour selections would also ride La Vuelta.