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Where there is despair, always hope.
For an often dominant team that has conquered everything before them in the past, Ineos Grenadiers’ 2020 saw its most iconic figures, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal, fall far from their pedestals.
But it started with a tragedy that changed everything.
In March, Nico Portal died, at the age of 40.
A fundamental figure, both professionally and personally, in building the incomparable success of Ineos (formerly Team Sky).
A sports director, following the tactics and commands of the team’s car, Sky’s former French driver was a warm, confident character who made those around him feel safe and supported.
His only weakness was heart disease, which ended his career in 2010 and led to his death at his home in Andorra on March 3 a decade later.
“You can’t think of this without thinking of Nico,” said a fiery team boss Sir Dave Brailsford as Geoghegan Hart lifted the gold trophy in front of the Duomo di Milano on Sunday. “Tao has had a lot of support along the way and from certain people.”
It was a sentiment that was repeated after Geoghegan Hart referred to Portal himself after his first stage win on the Grand Tour a week ago at Piancavallo. “Every day we ride, we remember it.”
The loss of Portal so unexpectedly forced a change in the way the team had to operate this season. But, more important than that, how they felt.
“It’s completely irreplaceable, to the point where it’s hard to imagine where to go from here,” Froome said days after his friend’s death.
And this is what gives Geoghegan Hart’s victory so much more seriousness. It is far more important than just the completion of a talent pool full of high budgets and rigorous science. Or the fact that he is the fifth Briton to win a Grand Tour.
“This season has had great ups and downs, on the Tour [de France] and for me personally, and also in this race, ”added Geoghegan Hart.
“We just have to foster the spirit of the Grenadiers in this team and keep fighting as we know we can.”
Privately, Ineos’s fall from grace has been hard for a team to accept for a team that is often surprised by the public perception that they are cold winners.
The reason Geoghegan Hart was able to win was the abandonment of pre-race favorite Thomas following an accident in which he suffered a broken pelvis after a loose bottle got stuck under his front wheel before third stage.
Add to that the puzzling loss of form during defending champion Bernal’s Tour, and Froome’s departure to the Israel Start-Up Nation team next season, and it’s easy to see why the world thinks Ineos is a team in freefall. .
While a changing of the guard in the competitive order of men’s cycling has refreshed the sport, the team spirit, if anything, is more vibrant than ever.
And Geoghegan Hart’s presence in the team’s coach, where he is beloved, has been part of a transition to what could secure the team for another decade at the top of a sport they seemed to be losing control of.
“He’s kind, courteous and respectful to everyone, a great guy,” said a staff member.
Following the wheels
Geoghegan Hart, a resident of East London from the now hipster confines of Hackney, began when he followed his unwitting heroes down The Mall in London during a procession in 2010 to introduce Team Sky. He even skipped school to make sure he didn’t miss out.
Ten years later, he is at the center of the squad. Geoghegan Hart was always considered a rider with the potential to win big races, but even at 25 it seemed like he would have to wait a while before he had a chance on a team that still has riders with nine Grand Tour victories between them.
But, as he has shown on the bike, patience seems to be one of his strengths, following as he has done to his competitors during this race.
Always matching, but seemingly not overshooting the steepest climbs of the Giro, including the legendary Passo dello Stelvio covered in snow this week.
But he has a stinging attack and entertains himself with aggressive, meandering style on the bike when he unleashes his power, usually at the end of stages, as he did on Sestriere’s stage 20.
Brits abroad
It is this character that is giving Ineos a new and distinctive feel, when in the past the team was defined by mastery and calculation.
Billionaire owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is likely to be here for the long haul, promoting his company Ineos in cycling, F1, soccer and sailing, and wants the team to reflect a British character that sets it apart from other teams in the peloton.
It’s an approach that appears to be changing Brailsford’s perspective as well. “We have done the train, we have done the defensive style of driving and we have gained a lot with that, but it is not very fun compared to this,” he told Eurosport.
The squad may be made up of multiple nationalities, 13 at last count, but there will be a Brit at the center of things one way or another, drawing the attention of a sport-obsessed country that makes money for everyone involved.
Geoghegan Hart fits this ideology perfectly: he is already speaking his mind publicly and winning races. Big.
You are not alone, of course. Ineos has signed Adam Yates, whose undeniable ability to win races can be fulfilled, and Tom Pidcock for 2021, and already has Chris Lawless, Luke Rowe, Owain Doull, Ethan Hayter, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift and, of course, the 2018 Tour winner Thomas. – who, at 34, should have at least one more great moment in him.
Can you do it again?
Like Froome at the 2011 Vuelta, Geoghegan Hart has been good on the Grand Tour level four or five years into his professional career.
Most satisfying of all? He has done it the hard way.
He arrived in Palermo in early October with a set of instructions for carrying bottles and fighting the wind, a domestic role that requires him to empty the tank stage by stage, but keep enough to recover to do the following again. day.
Instead, after losing his team leader, he adapted to subject his body to unexpected levels of pain like the newly protected rider.
When everything went wrong, Geoghegan Hart was ready.
He had an unexpected opportunity to win a Grand Tour, and he took it.
