Cycling: Team Sky to become Team Ineos

Team Sky, the biggest and most successful squad in cycling at the moment, are set to announce a new sponsor. Sky have already announced that they won't continue their partnership with the cycling team in 2020 and the new sponsor will be Ineos, a company which is owned by Britain's richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The partnership between Sky and the cycling team led by Sir Dave Brailsford was extremely successful, the ten years of the partnership produced eight Grand Tour victories and several other triumphs. Ineos, the new main sponsor of the team, is a chemicals company that billionaire Ratcliffe owns. Ratcliffe's fortune is worth 21 billion pounds and has been in talks with Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford for several weeks. Geraint Thomas, the winner of the 2018 Tour de France, has already signed a new three-year contract with the team, despite the uncertainty regarding the sponsor. Ineos is Britain's largest privately owned company and in 2018 it had profits of 2 billion pounds. The new sponsor is expected to continue the policy of big spending as Dave Brailsford will most likely continue to add the best and most effective riders to his squad. Moreover, four-times Tour de France winner Chris Froome is set to remain with the team. Former Team Sky rider Bradley Wiggins, who won the 2012 Tour de France, said the partnership between Brailsford and Ratcliffe could be very productive: "I think he would have been reluctant to have another multinational company that came in and wanted the control in terms of 'this is how we advertise our company'. Ratcliffe is the richest man in Britain and you would imagine that the kind of money they have asked for is nothing to him. Dave can continue running this team with all his plans and philosophies, so it's an ideal situation for him and you'd imagine he is answerable to one man." The first Grand Tour of the season is the Giro d'Italia and Team Sky rider Egan Bernal is 4/1 to win it.