Ineos Grenadiers cycling team confirm rebrand with new AI-powered deal

Jim Ratcliffe ’s Ineos Grenadiers team announced an official rebrand on Tuesday, with the outfit now set to be known as Netcompany-Ineos Cycling Team. As reported last month, Danish IT firm Netcompany have come on board as a co-title sponsor after signing a five-year deal worth £87m, with the significant injection of cash intended to bring its budget in line with some of the sport’s biggest teams. This marks the first time since Ratcliffe bought the team - formerly known as Team Sky - in 2019 that it will have a co-title sponsor.

Team Sky dominated cycling in the 2010s, winning seven Tour de France titles in eight years, but it has not won a Grand Tour since the Giro d’Italia in 2021. It has long since been superseded by super-teams like Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the latter home to the all-conquering Tadej Pogacar, but the new deal is hoped to make it competitive once again at the top level. The team was strengthened by the signings of Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin and 23-year-old Scot Oscar Onley, who finished fourth in last year’s Tour de France, over the winter, and its increased budget should enable it to attract more top talent.

Ratcliffe has invested £30m per year but needs further cash injections to close the gap to the £51m annual budget of Pogacar’s team. Netcompany’s investment will boost the team’s coffers while Ineos will remain a sponsor, as will French oil and gas multinational Total Energies, who are currently its official jersey sponsors. Copenhagen-based Netcompany has recently been named Heathrow Airport’s main digital operations partner and also works with HMRC.

Team Sky were famous for their policy of exploiting “marginal gains” under team principal Dave Brailsford , and the new deal appears to hark back to that era with its dependence on Netcompany’s AI platform Pulse. Part of the reason for Ineos’ waning influence in the sport was that other teams caught up to the standards of increased professionalism it set, particularly by the end of the 2010s. The move to wholly embrace AI can be seen as a return to the team’s roots, trying to establish an edge over its rivals via new technology.