Netcompany INEOS did not lose Filippo Ganna because the Italian stopped delivering. Geraint Thomas, who stepped off the bike at the end of 2025 and into the team’s director of racing chair, has pinned the exit on something simpler: the money ran out.

Speaking on his Watts Occurring podcast, the 2018 Tour de France winner said the squad could not keep paying for two elite time trialists in the same jersey when a younger one, Josh Tarling, was already on the roster.

“You have Josh and Pipo on the same team, and that costs a lot of money,” Thomas said on the podcast, in comments relayed by Cycling Up To Date.

Three-year deal through 2029

Lidl-Trek confirmed Ganna’s signing on 13 October 2026, a three-year contract that runs to the end of 2029 and begins with the 2027 season. The 30-year-old had one year still to run on his INEOS deal and leaves after eight seasons with the British outfit.

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For Lidl-Trek he is the eighth incoming rider confirmed for 2027, slotting in alongside Mads Pedersen as a dual threat for the cobbled classics and a time trial engine for the grand tours.

Ganna’s INEOS honour roll is heavy for a single team: two world time trial titles, the UCI Hour Record, Olympic team pursuit gold and eight Giro d’Italia stage wins among 41 victories in the jersey.

The Tarling calculation

Thomas, 40, framed the choice as a straight overlap problem. Tarling is 22, already a Giro stage winner and the rider the team wants to grow into a road captain. Keeping both, Thomas told the podcast, was not realistic once the budget had been drawn up.

The Welshman also made clear this was not a performance decision. He said he was personally sorry to see Ganna leave after years together at grand tours, and that if the next contract was going to be the Italian’s last big one, the team was not going to block him.

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“I wish him the best of luck at Lidl-Trek,” Thomas said.

Tarling inherits the TT role

Ganna’s exit hands Tarling the undisputed role as INEOS’s time trial leader and clears space on the wage bill as owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s team continues to recalibrate. On the other side, Lidl-Trek have added a rider who was on the world championship time trial podium in 2026 and who won Dwars door Vlaanderen the same spring.

Ganna’s three-year contract at Lidl-Trek takes him through to the end of the 2029 season, with his first race in the team’s colours due at its opening training camp ahead of 2027.

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