The Team behind the Team: Inside Ineos Grenadiers

Go behind-the-scenes at the Tour de France – the biggest race in professional cycling – with Ineos Grenadiers. It’s part of a new four-part podcast series, presented by Katie Smith, made in partnership with The Open University.

Ineos Grenadiers have won the race six times but the last of those was in 2019, so how are they attempting to find the winning formula again?

Listen in on their team talk on the bus ahead of the first stage and hear from 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, who was competing in the race for the final time. The team’s Performance Director – Dr Scott Drawer – outlines the key responsibilities of his role and how he believes in collaboration, while CEO John Allert explains why the team were so keen to appoint Scott, explaining there’s a “war for talent” at the elite level.

The Open University’s Professor of Sports Performance Education, Ben Oakley tells us how performance directors have become prominent in Olympic sports, how they implement the teams shared values and how the role is different from being a national coach.

Also hear about how the role of Performance Director works in other sports, with contributions from Head of Sprints and Relays at British Athletics, Darren Campbell and England Golf’s Jenny Henderson.

The Team behind the Team is produced in partnership with the Open University.

Team Ineos Grenadiers staff member David Rozman does not feature in this series and he was never interviewed or offered for interview during the process of gathering material for the series. Our production team was unaware of historical doping allegations relating to David Rozman and the 2012 season, which they have since been made aware of following the recording of this series.