Ineos Grenadiers' Simon Watts: 'We've been well behind the curve in some ways' 🇬🇧
Exclusive, in-depth interview with Ineos Grenadiers' Performance Pathway Manager on U23 and junior plans
E3 Saxo Classic will be remembered for Mathieu van der Poel's stunning solo win as he stormed up the Kwaremont on his way to another Classic.
That victory was broadcast on TV worldwide, yet many other intricate stories bubbled beneath the surface and behind the scenes in Harelbeke on the morning of the race.
I’ll write extensively about WorldTour scouting systems later this week. However, while I was going through the team paddocks ahead of the junior race, one aspect that caught my eye was the gentleman in the Ineos Grenadiers tracksuit talking to Giles Pidcock, the head of the highly successful Fensham Howes-MAS Design-CAMS team and the father of Tom and Joe Pidcock.
The Ineos Grenadiers attire belonged to Simon Watts, a Substack subscriber and, perhaps more importantly, the Performance Pathway Manager for the Ineos Grenadiers Cycling Team.
Watts started his new role at the beginning of the year and is a leading figure in the WorldTour team’s Ascent programme. The programme has been tasked with finding and developing young talent, aiming to bring the riders through to the WorldTour squad later.
A veteran of British Cycling and the GB Cycling Team, with over 18 years of experience in the sport, Watts has previously worked under Dave Brailsford and Rod Ellingworth. He played pivotal roles in several Olympics, including being the performance manager for the mountain bike team that secured a gold medal through Tom Pidcock in Tokyo.
His venture to Belgium, and specifically E3 Saxo Classic, wasn’t to watch Van der Poel annihilate the opposition but to talk to riders and teams, learn from coaches and managers, and follow the race from inside the Fensham Howes-MAS Design-CAMS team car.
Although these are early stages in Ineos’ structured approach to creating development pathways, Watts knows the huge task ahead. Ineos has fallen down the pecking order in recent seasons, not having won a Tour de France since 2019 and witnessing a sea of young talent move to rival squads with U23 and U18 talent pools.
Lidl-Trek, Decathlon, FDJ, EF, UAE Team Emirates, Bahrain Victorious, and Jayco AlUla all have development teams, while Ineos has been slow to the draw.
Ineos Grenadiers have been playing catch-up, a fact that Watts readily admits.
“Absolutely. We’ve been well behind the curve in some ways. I think that we can talk openly and honestly about that. However, the sport has moved on quickly, and the intention isn’t just to catch up, because by the time we do, the sport will have moved on again, but I think we can raise the game in terms of how we do off-bike education, development, support, and welfare. We have a track record in terms of the pathways that GB Cycling has shown over the years. A number of our staff have come through that network and have had long periods of time working within the education system there. We have got some considerable catching up to do, and that’s what this setup is about. But also, it’s about bringing new things in and doing things in a really exciting way,” he told us.