Bahrain-McLaren Boss Rod Ellingworth Ready To Take On Ineos

Bahrain-McLaren Boss Rod Ellingworth Ready To Take On Ineos

Rod Ellingworth took over Bahrain-McLaren with the aim of winning the Tour de France.

Jan 9, 2020 by Gregor Brown
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Bahrain-McLaren's new team boss Rod Ellingworth is preparing to take on his former employer, Sky/Ineos, at the Tour de France.

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Bahrain-McLaren's new team boss Rod Ellingworth is preparing to take on his former employer, Sky/Ineos, at the Tour de France.

Ellingworth took over Team Bahrain-McLaren over the winter with the aim of winning the Tour in the coming years. He spoke with FloBikes in a video interview at the team's training camp in Hvar, Croatia.

"I mean, obviously I do I enjoy winning," Ellingworth said when asked if he is motivated to prove himself as Team Principal against his former team.

"I wouldn't say it's a big motivation of mine to be better than one single team. There's a whole raft of teams who we've got to try and beat, I think there's some huge talent out there."

Ellingworth took the job at Team Bahrain-McLaren after coaching the Under 23 British Academy and 10 years with Team Sky, now Ineos. In that time, Sky won the Tour with Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, and Geraint Thomas.

"What I do know is how Ineos works and their methods, and they do a really good job. So they'll always be hard to beat with the quality of riders that they have, but would I be happy if we [stood at the top?] Of course, but we've got a long way to go. But we’ve certainly got the ambition to move forward."

Ellingworth is building a team around Mikel Landa for the Tour de France, this June 27 to July 19 on FloBikes. The Basque Cyclist has yet to prove himself able to win a Grand Tour, always riding in the shadows of other leaders at Astana, Sky, and most recently, Movistar.

Dutchman Wout Poels also joined from Team Ineos, where he helped Froome and Egan Bernal win the Tour. His job will be to aim for week-long stage races wins and to help Landa in July.