Pogacar’s UAE-Team Emirates-XRG wealth comes from the region’s oil resources and so appears limitless, while other big-budget teams are the Netherlands’ Visma-Lease a Bike of two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard and Germany’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe who have Belgian superstar and Olympic road and time trial champion Remco Evenepoel.
In a past three seasons, Ineos Grenadiers have fallen further behind those teams in terms of budget, overall wins and UCI points amassed.
Alongside their competitors’ ascension, was the arrival of a peerless talent in Pogacar; the Slovenian has won 112 races across a seven-year elite career, which included the 2020 Tour de France, one year after Ineos’ last win with Columbia’s Egan Bernal.
Put simply, Pogacar has the race craft and strength to accelerate away from, and outlast, any opponent in almost any race.
What could make the difference is using Netcompany’s AI data platform Pulse, an “AI-driven orchestration platform” which uses data for “solutions in real-time decision-making”, according to the Danish company which manages data for HMRC and Heathrow Airport, and whose CEO and co-founder Andre Rogaczewski says is “a company fighting for Europe’s digital sovereignty”.
“For me, I struggle to turn my Apple TV on,” says Thomas. “So I’m not going to say I’m tech-savvy, but information you want in one place quickly or for a [sporting director] or trainer or nutritionist to make decisions quickly for an athlete – that’s where the benefit will be.
“I feel like I started [my career] at a time when I just had a heart-rate strap. Now it’s all data with numbers here, there and everywhere. It’s like a blizzard of data, and sifting through it – anything to help narrow that down and give more of an idea of what is happening is a good thing.”