INEOS Grenadiers have announced a major five-year co-title partnership with Netcompany, with the British WorldTour team set to become Netcompany INEOS Cycling Team from the start of the 2026 Giro d’Italia.
The agreement is being presented as one of the team’s most significant commercial and technological partnerships, bringing new sponsorship, a change of name, new kit and a deeper focus on AI-led performance optimisation. The deal will also see Netcompany’s PULSE platform embedded across the team, riders and racing operations as INEOS looks to rebuild the foundations needed to return to Tour de France-winning level.
INEOS to race under new name from the Giro d’Italia
The new identity will be introduced at the 2026 Giro d’Italia, where the team will race as Netcompany INEOS Cycling Team in updated colours. It marks another notable shift for one of the most successful teams of the modern era, whose previous identities have included Team Sky, Team INEOS and INEOS Grenadiers.
For INEOS, the partnership lands at an important moment. The team has spent recent seasons trying to close the gap to the dominant forces in Grand Tour racing, while still holding one of the sport’s strongest historical records. The arrival of Netcompany gives the structure a longer-term commercial platform and a clear technological direction built around performance decision-making.
Sir Dave Brailsford described the agreement as “one of the most significant partnerships in cycling” and said it represented “a real vote of confidence not only in our team, but in the sport itself.”
“It’s a major moment for us and marks the beginning of a new chapter,” Brailsford said.
PULSE platform central to performance push
The technical focus of the partnership is PULSE, Netcompany’s AI-driven digital platform. The company already uses the system in real-time environments including Munich and Heathrow Airports, but the INEOS agreement will mark its first major deployment in elite sport.
The aim is to use PULSE to bring together different data sources across the team, then turn them into clearer, faster and more practical decisions around training, racing and recovery. In a sport where teams already generate huge amounts of information through power meters, physiology, nutrition, race analysis and logistics, the challenge is often less about collecting data and more about making it useful at speed.
Brailsford made that point directly.
“Our sport is a human endeavour, where decisions in training, racing and recovery make the difference every day,” he said. “We have no shortage of data, the real challenge is turning it into simple, practical actions and delivering them consistently.”
“With Netcompany, we can do that better. PULSE allows us to orchestrate our data into clear insights that support faster, better decisions when it matters most.”
The team says PULSE will be embedded across riders, staff and races, creating a shared data source for real-time collaborative decision-making. INEOS has also secured PULSE licences for the full five-year period of the partnership.
Brailsford: ‘It’s about creating the conditions to win the Tour de France’
The message from INEOS is not only about technology. It is also about restoring the team’s ability to compete consistently for the biggest prize in the sport.
Brailsford said the partnership brings “long-term stability” and gives the team the platform to invest in performance over time.
“This is more than a sponsorship, it’s a partnership with purpose,” he said. “It brings long-term stability, giving us the platform to invest in performance over time, building the foundations to win, and keep winning.”
“Ultimately, it’s about creating the conditions to win the Tour de France.”
That line gives the announcement its clearest sporting direction. INEOS remain the only British WorldTour team and one of the defining Grand Tour squads of the past 15 years, but their last Tour de France victory came in 2019 with Egan Bernal. Since then, the balance of power at the race has shifted, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike setting the benchmark in the modern GC era.
Netcompany’s arrival will not change that equation overnight, but it gives INEOS a new strategic pillar as they try to return to that level.
Ratcliffe welcomes extra resource and capability
INEOS chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe said the new partnership would strengthen both performance and operations.
“I’m really pleased to welcome Netcompany to the cycling team, establishing a new long-term partnership that will help create the right conditions to deliver more success,” Ratcliffe said.
“This collaboration brings additional resource, technology and capability across performance and operations to give the team the ability to compete consistently at the highest level of the sport.”
That combination of finance, technology and operational support is central to the announcement. In modern cycling, the leading teams are no longer separated only by riders and budgets, but by how effectively they convert resources into repeatable performance advantages. INEOS built much of its original dominance on marginal gains, control and process. This partnership is being positioned as a new version of that same logic, updated for an era of integrated data and AI-assisted decision-making.
Netcompany targets sport as showcase for AI technology
For Netcompany, the deal is also a strategic move. The company framed the partnership around its wider European growth ambitions, particularly in the UK, which it described as Europe’s largest IT market.
Netcompany has recently secured strategic framework agreements with HMRC, TSS and Heathrow Airport, and sees the cycling partnership as a way to demonstrate its technology in a highly visible, high-pressure sporting environment.
André Rogaczewski, CEO and co-founder of Netcompany, said the move aligned with the company’s focus on European digital sovereignty.
“As a leading European AI technology company fighting for Europe’s digital sovereignty, joining forces with the most successful cycling team of the modern era and the UK’s only WorldTour team is a unique opportunity,” Rogaczewski said.
“This partnership supports our strategic ambition to accelerate growth across Europe by demonstrating the impact of cutting-edge technology and AI at the highest level of sport. Together, we aim to enable smarter decision-making, strengthen competitive advantage, and help the team in winning the Tour de France again.”
Geraint Thomas highlights alignment and detail
Geraint Thomas, now Director of Racing at the team, said the platform should help connect the different parts of the organisation and improve decision-making around the riders.
“I’ve seen first-hand how much the sport has evolved,” Thomas said. “But what hasn’t changed is the importance of doing all the basics well and paying attention to the tiny details. That’s what ultimately leads to success on the road.”
Thomas said Netcompany’s PULSE platform would help across “every part of the team” by improving confidence in systems, data quality and real-time information.
“It gives us confidence in the systems and in the quality of the data and information we’re working from in real time, so everyone is aligned and working off the same hymn sheet,” he added.
“From my side, it’s about creating an environment where riders can focus fully on racing, while the team around them is connected and making the best possible decisions. If we get that balance right, it will make a real difference when it counts.”
The announcement gives INEOS a new commercial identity, a long-term partner and a performance narrative built around AI integration. The more important test will come on the road, beginning with the Giro d’Italia, where Netcompany INEOS Cycling Team will make its first appearance under the new name.
