Cycling-New AI partnership to propel INEOS Grenadiers back to top, team hopes

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) – INEOS Grenadiers cycling team will embark on a new chapter with AI at the heart of its quest for Grand Tour victories after signing a five-year partnership with Danish technology firm Netcompany, the British outfit announced on Tuesday.

The re-brand will be launched at next week’s Giro d’Italia where the team will be known as Netcompany INEOS.

PULSE, Netcompany’s European AI-driven digital platform, will be at the heart of the partnership — its first major venture into elite sport.

“This is one of the most significant partnerships in cycling — a real vote of confidence not only in our team, but in the sport itself. It’s a major moment for us and marks the beginning of a new chapter,” Dave Brailsford, Team Principal and Director of Sport for INEOS, said in a statement.

Brailsford said PULSE would benefit the team’s data analysis capabilities as the team tries to compete for the sport’s biggest prizes in the face of stiff competition.

“We have no shortage of data — the real challenge is turning it into simple, practical actions and delivering them consistently,” Brailsford, who made INEOS Grenadiers’ previous incarnation Team Sky a cycling powerhouse, said.

“With Netcompany, we can do that better. PULSE allows us to orchestrate our data into clear insights that support faster, better decisions when it matters most.

“This is more than a sponsorship it’s a partnership with purpose. Ultimately, it’s about creating the conditions to win the Tour de France.”

With Brailsford at the helm, Team Sky and then INEOS Grenadiers won seven Tour de France titles between 2012 and 2019. It also won the 2018, 2020 and 2021 Giro d’Italia plus the 2011 and 2017 Vuelta a Espana.

They have now been usurped by the likes of UAE-Team Emirates-XRG for whom Slovenian generational talent Tadej Pogacar is the dominant force in Grand Tours and Classics.

Dutch team Visma-Lease a Bike, whose top rider is twice Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard, and Olympic road and time trial champion Remco Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have all benefited from huge budgets that INEOS has struggled to match.

“Money is a key point,” retired Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas, now director of racing at INEOS Grenadiers, told the BBC. “But like in everyday life if you see some guy splash the cash on a load of shiny stuff, spending it in ridiculous ways, you’re just wasting it really.

“We’ve got foundation as a team, now all we need to focus on is performance now we know where we’re going.”

Colombian Egan Bernal, who won the Giro in 2021, will be the team’s co-leader with Dutchman Thymen Arensman in this year’s race, which starts in Bulgaria for the first time on May 8.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)