Dave Brailsford future in doubt as doping questions overshadow Ineos Grenadiers' Tour

Telegraph

6 days ago

For Ineos Grenadiers the 2025 Tour de France was supposed to be about renewal. Welcoming a familiar face back into the fold in Sir Dave Brailsford following his well-publicised football sojourn. Saying farewell to one of the most popular riders in the team's history in Geraint Thomas. Developing the next generation: GC hopeful Carlos Rodríguez, Thymen Arensman, the young Briton Sam Watson.
After years of drift, the image that Ineos wanted to present to the world on the eve of the race was one of a team who were getting to grips with the future. Brailsford was seemingly a big part of that.
'It's obvious we want to win the Tour [again],' said chief executive John Allert of Ineos's stated ambition. 'But there's no point just saying you want to win the Tour: you've got to do something about it. That's why it's great to welcome Dave back into the fold. Dave loves a performance challenge and this is the biggest one there is.'
Allert added that Brailsford was 'like a kid in a sweet shop, talking about climbs and getting back to the mountains. That's the battlefield that he knows and loves'.
Unfortunately for Brailsford, and the team, the battlefield they ended up on was a very different one, albeit one equally familiar to them.
The case of David Rozman, Ineos Grenadiers' head carer, who was forced to leave the Tour after the International Testing Agency (ITA) launched an investigation into alleged messages he exchanged in 2012 with subsequently convicted German doping doctor Mark Schmidt, completely engulfed the British squad.
Ineos initially declined to speak to journalists after Paul Kimmage of the Sunday Independent named Rozman as the longstanding Ineos member of staff referred to in a doping documentary by German broadcaster ARD pre-Tour. Then they claimed the allegations had not 'been presented to the team by an appropriate authority'. In the end they were forced to admit that Rozman had been informally contacted by the ITA back in April and that they had commissioned a 'thorough review by an external law firm'.
Given the potential for the whole thing to blow up in their faces – ARD first approached Ineos at the Giro d'Italia back in May so they knew this was coming – it is incredible that Brailsford chose this Tour to come back. In fact, it is tempting to wonder whether it would have blown up the way it has if he had not. Was it his presence back at the race that acted like a magnet?
Either way, it completely overshadowed Thomas's 14th and final Tour, not to mention the two stage wins by Arensman, who was forced to field questions in his winner's press conferences about something which occurred when he was a child.
'Do you think it's fair that you're celebrating the biggest result of your career and the journalists are having to ask you what's going on?' the 25-year-old was asked after the victory at Luchon-Superbagnères on stage 14.
'Yeah, I don't know, weird that they don't really answer you,' he replied, not unreasonably.
Where do Ineos go from here? Can Brailsford survive? Can the team survive?
If Rozman has been found to have done anything wrong – and the allegation is that he sent Dr Schmidt messages in 2012, the year Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first British rider to win the Tour – it could prove terminal.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the Ineos co-owner who bought the team in 2019, famously said when he took over: 'The day any of that enters our world [doping] then we would leave cycling.'
Even if nothing is proven, it looks horrific, another in a long line of controversies that includes the employment of medical consultant Geert Leinders, who worked with Team Sky in 2012 and who was subsequently banned for life for multiple doping violations from 1996-2009 at a previous team, Wiggins' use of TUEs (therapeutic use exemptions) ahead of the three biggest races of his life, exposed by Russian hackers Fancy Bears, and which an MPs inquiry found to be 'unethical', Chris Froome's AAF (adverse analytical finding) for salbutamol in 2018 which he subsequently overturned, the infamous jiffy bag that was flown out to the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2011, and the arrival of a box of testosterone to British Cycling's headquarters that same year which resulted in a four-year ban for Dr Richard Freeman. Team Sky and later Ineos have consistently denied any wrongdoing, but patience is wearing thin.
Brailsford, who in the old days preached transparency and openness, telling journalists that the door was always open, has long since given up speaking. 'I won't be commenting,' he told media when journalists first started gathering outside the bus to ask about Rozman. 'F-----g hell guys, come on,' he added. Now he cannot answer because there is an official investigation ongoing.
Even if he survives, one wonders whether this will affect Brailsford's appetite to return to cycling in a leadership role after his time out in football. He is still director of sport for Ineos, with a broad overview of the company's sporting portfolio. Will he go back to flitting between them?
Ineos's appetite to continue in professional cycling is also unclear. Ratcliffe admitted to the Telegraph during last autumn's America's Cup that the team was 'under consideration', adding their results were 'not good'. Ineos won just 14 races in 2024, the lowest total in the team's history, and were winless at the Tour. Allert then said in January that Ineos 'don't want to spend more money' and were actively looking for a second title sponsor. TotalEnergies were announced as a jersey sponsor prior to this Tour, but it is unclear how much more patience Ratcliffe has. A spokesperson for Ineos did not return a request for comment.
On the performance side, the team still feels a long way from being Tour-competitive, which is Ratcliffe's stated aim. While Ineos have lots of talented riders, how many of them would you build a team around? Rodríguez finished fifth in 2023, seventh in 2024 and was 10th overall this year before fracturing his pelvis in a heavy crash on stage 17. Arensman, 25, had a breakthrough Tour, and has twice finished sixth in the Giro and once in the Vuelta a España. But he was not targeting the general classification this year, and is not at the same level as a Tadej Pogacar or a Jonas Vingegaard. Who is? Remco Evenepoel is possibly the closest but it looks as if the Belgian is going to Bora-Hansgrohe.
There are reasons to be more positive. Thomas is said to have been offered a management role, which could be interesting. The Welshman has always seemed immune to the troubles swirling around him, a friendly, likeable presence on the team. It also appears Ineos may be starting up an under-23 team under the guidance of performance director Scott Drawer and Simon Watts, the performance pathway manager. This could yield results down the line. But again, how much patience does Ratcliffe have?
In the meantime, the team will batten down the hatches while they wait for the ITA to rule on Rozman. There is a lot riding on it. The Slovenian also worked with Team GB at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. He was personal soigneur to Froome for years. The four-time Tour champion must be wanting Rozman to explain himself. Brailsford, too.
'We have welcomed him back into the team with open arms,' Allert said of Brailsford's return less than a month ago. 'He's a not-so-secret weapon for us to use, and we plan on using him to the fullest extent we can. It's great to have him back.'
A team statement read: 'David Rozman was informally contacted in April 2025 by a member of ITA staff, who asked him about alleged historical communications. David immediately notified the team of his meeting with the ITA and his recollection of the contents of the meeting. Although the ITA assured David at the time that he was not under investigation, Ineos promptly commissioned a thorough review by an external law firm.
'The team has acted responsibly and with due process, taking the allegations seriously whilst acknowledging that David is a long-standing, dedicated member of the team. The team continues to assess the circumstances and any relevant developments, and has formally requested any relevant information from the ITA.'