Analysing Ineos Grenadiers’ 2024 Giro d’Italia team

After narrowly missing out on the win in 2023, Geraint Thomas will return to the Italian Grand Tour backed by a strong Ineos Grenadiers line-up

08:23, Friday 26th April 2024

Daniel Benson

Editor in Chief

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Geraint Thomas and his teammates will hope to win the pink jersey in Italy

Ineos Grenadiers will enter the 2024 Giro d’Italia with last year’s bruising near miss still fresh in the memory. Having grasped the pink jersey for much of the race, it was cruelly taken from Geraint Thomas by Primož Roglič on the penultimate stage time trial.

The Welshman returns to the Italian Grand Tour in May with a sense of unfinished business, although he arguably faces a tougher task if he wants to right last year’s wrong, amid the name of Tadej Pogačar on the start list.

While the Slovenian will start as the out-and-out favourite, Ineos Grenadiers have multiple cards to play along with a strong support cast of riders. Having already promised an aggressive style of racing, many eyes will be on the British team, but what can we expect from Thomas and his teammates?

Here’s a breakdown of the role each rider in the team could play in the first Grand Tour of the year.

Filippo Ganna

Filippo Ganna is winless so far in 2024

Age: 27
Giro d’Italia experience: Three starts, six stage wins

Filippo Ganna’s added firepower will give Ineos Grenadiers a vital edge over a number of their rivals. He’s a world-class athlete who can do the work of several riders when it comes to setting the pace on the flat, while his endurance and positioning are phenomenal attributes.

He’ll vie for victory in the time trials, and can even compete for sprints in reduced groups, as he showed at the Vuelta a España last year - although the calibre of sprinters is higher at the Giro - and he’ll be a valuable addition to Geraint Thomas’ GC hopes. He’s not won yet this season, so will be itching to get that first victory before building up towards the Olympic Games in Paris.

Magnus Sheffield

Age: 22
Giro d’Italia experience: Debutant

Injury robbed Magnus Sheffield of a spot in last year’s Tour de France but he returns this year to make his Grand Tour debut in what could be a breakthrough campaign for the young American. He’s been on point all season, coming close to a stage in the Volta ao Algarve and finishing sixth in the Tour of Flanders.

Currently racing in the Tour de Romandie, the 22-year-old is putting the finishing touches to his pre-Giro training, and he’ll go into the race looking to gain experience, support his leaders and potentially pick up results. The two time trials look like specific stages he can target, while his role as a domestique will very much depend on how his body recovers throughout three weeks of racing.

Having signed a recent contract extension on the team, it’s clear that Ineos believe that Sheffield is the real deal and that he can develop into a world beater and this Giro Odyssey will very much form a stepping stone in that journey. He’ll learn from Ganna, of that there’s no doubt, and then pick up tips and tricks along the way from the likes of Thomas and the Swifts.

Tobias Foss

Tobias Foss will start his first GrandTour in Ineos Grenadiers' colours

Age: 26
Giro d’Italia experience: Three starts, ninth overall in 2021

The Norwegian’s protracted transfer from Visma-Lease a Bike was one of the stories that dominated Ineos’ signing saga last summer but the 26-year-old has settled in perfectly since then. Overcoming glandular fever took time and patience but he’s already rewarded his team with a win this season, and heads into the Giro d’Italia with his tail up.

Once pigeonholed as a GC prospect following his ninth overall place in 2021, Foss looks more accustomed to providing support and cover for Thomas and Arensman. With few pure climbers outside of their leadership duo, Foss will have a huge amount of responsibility on his shoulders. He climbs better than Ganna, and given this is Sheffield’s first Grand Tour, the former world TT champion will likely be the last line of defence before Arensman and Thomas have to start hitting the front in the mountains. On the one hand, that might be somewhat of a risk given the fact that Foss hasn’t raced a Grand Tour in two years, but Ineos clearly trust him to deliver.

Jhonatan Narváez

Age: 27
Giro d’Italia experience: Four starts, one stage win

Injury curtailed Jhonatan Narváez's impressive start to the season that at one point saw him lead the line for Ineos in the Spring Classics. He’s still the only rider on the team to win multiple races on the road this year, and it’s almost remarkable that he’s still only in his mid-20s, having seemingly been on the scene for years.

As ever, he’ll have the freedom to compete in some of the lumpy and technical finishes that pepper the race, while also having a support role when called upon. He hasn’t raced since his crash in Gent-Wevelgem, but Ineos are confident that the form is where it needs to be before the season's first Grand Tour.

Out of contract at the end of the current campaign, it’s more than likely that an extension will follow given Ineos’ track record in keeping their domestiques in recent years, and a strong showing through Italy will no doubt help the Ecuadorian who edged out Elia Viviani and Salvatore Puccio for a slot on the Giro team.

Ben Swift

Age: 36
Giro d’Italia experience: Making his sixth start

Since returning to Ineos at the start of 2020, Swift has made the Giro d’Italia his regular Grand Tour assignment with three starts in the last four years. His renaissance as a trusted domestique has no doubt prolonged his career and given him a new lease of life, and while his sprint days are behind him, the veteran is probably enjoying the most settled phase of his career. It’s worth pointing out that he’s helped teammates win or finish second in the Giro on his last three starts in the race, and he’s a more accomplished climber than many give him credit for.

Like his cousin, Connor, he’ll form the guard around Thomas on the flat and carry out domestique duties wherever called upon, probably helping to keep his leader safe in the fast finishes that can always throw up incidents and danger. It’s also true that Swift will take on the role of road captain on the team in the absence of Salvatore Puccio, who has been a mainstay in Ineos’ Giro squad for over a decade, but has missed out on selection.

Back in 2009, Swift made his Giro debut alongside Pavel Brutt and Filippo Pozzato as a fresh-faced neo-pro. All these years later he’s still kicking around, and still an important rider in his team’s challenge. Longevity might not make many headlines but that’s a pretty impressive achievement.

Connor Swift

Age: 28
Giro d’Italia experience: Set to make his debut

Connor Swift missed out on Grand Tour selection in 2023 but it shouldn’t be forgotten that he made the Tour de France team for three consecutive years between 2020 and 2022. This will mark his Giro d’Italia debut and the consensus is that he’ll form part of the core of the squad that will protect Thomas and, possibly, Arensman on the flat and through some of the notoriously tricky stages that litter the first half of the race.

A solid climber on small to medium ascents, he’ll also form a bridge between the likes of Ganna, Ben Swift and the pure climbers on the team. He’s a solid pick who will get on with his job without fuss or distraction, and in that sense, he’s a sports director’s dream.

Thymen Arensman

Age: 24
Giro d’Italia experience: Two starts, one top-ten on GC

Thymen Arensman finished in the top ten last year, claiming sixth overall, and he probably didn’t get the credit he deserved for his performance on what was his Giro debut. He was a formidable teammate for Thomas, rode an astute race and cemented his place within Ineos’ hierarchy as a dependable yet still developing stage racer.

Crashing out of the Vuelta a España a few months later was a massive setback but this year he’s been flying under the radar with some decent results, including top-tens in Tirreno-Adriatico and and Volta ao Algarve.

He’s currently racing at the Tour de Romandie where he’ll fine-tune his form, and while Thomas starts as the undisputed number one on paper, the Giro has a knack for throwing up a curve ball or two. Arensman will have more responsibility on his shoulders regardless of pecking order given that Laurens De Plus has been saved for the Tour this year and is skipping the Giro, but it’s also a contract year for the Dutch rider and he’s one of the few GC riders on the market. Ineos haven’t announced a contract extension, so it will be interesting to see how Arensman responds to questions, focuses on the race and navigates a path between support role and riding for his own future.

Geraint Thomas

Geraint Thomas led the Giro d'Italia for much of the race in 2023

Age: 37
Giro d’Italia experience: Five starts, second overall on GC in 2023

Everyone has seemingly written Geraint Thomas off before a single pedal stroke at this year’s Giro d’Italia. Too old, too slow, too unlike Tadej Pogačar, but the reality is that Welshman is a Grand Tour winner who came within a whisker of beating Primož Roglič in last year’s Giro d’Italia. Roglič ended the race the stronger of the two, but a mere 14 seconds separated Thomas from victory over one of the best stage races over the last five years. That’s impressive for a veteran rider who was seen as over the hill by his own team back in 2020.

Of course, Pogačar starts as the out-and-out favourite - he does in almost every single race he enters - but the Giro d’Italia isn’t the Tour de France, and there’s a much higher degree of unpredictability when it comes to the first Grand Tour of the season. The weather, sickness, crazy breaks that generate 30 minutes, and countless polemics, can all break out without a moment’s notice and it’s somewhat disrespectful to effectively hand Pogačar the maglia rosa now.

Of course, to be in with a chance of winning, Thomas has to be at his very best, even better than last year, and the question of age is relevant when it comes to a 37-year-old but he’s now in the third year of a new training pattern, looks relaxed and confident, and knows exactly how to peak for this race. He does need to outfox or wait for Pogačar to make a mistake through complacency, because in a straight-up fight, he’ll lose, but that’s part and parcel of stage racing. Pogačar should win, but that doesn’t mean he will.

For everything you need to know about the 2024 Giro d'Italia, from the history of the race to this year's route and start list, be sure to check out our dedicated race hub.