Team Ineos insisted on targeting the 2020 Tour de France, with Egan Bernal as leader and Richard Carapas as second option, to "purposefully build an excellent game plan" for the Tour de France, while Geraint Thomas was Giro d'Italia, and Chris Froome changed direction to the Vuelta a España.

Team manager Dave Brailsford spun the news that Froome and Thomas would not be competing in the Tour de France as an opportunity for the two British veterans, choosing a support team with young talent and solid experience, Bernal and Explaining why he was going all-in, he led the announcement of Team Inoise's Tour de France squad.

"I've been thinking about how we can win this race, and I have some ideas. Maybe a little different approach than we've had in the past, but we've got a good game plan, and we're going to try to win this race."

In the Criterium du Dauphiné, even the support role in the mountains was a struggle, and Froome and Thomas were left out of the final eight-rider lineup.

2019 Giro d'Italia winner Richard Karapas was replaced by Thomas, who will provide crucial support in place of Bernal, who is looking for his second consecutive Tour de France victory. They will be supported by Pavel Sivakov, Andrei Amador, Jonathan Castroviejo, Michal Kwiatkowski, and Dylan van Baarle, with Englishman Luke Rowe appointed road captain.

"So we took our time and really thought about this year," Brailsford suggested in a video explaining the Tour de France selection strategy.

"We now know where we are, we know where we are in the race, we know where the other riders are. To select the right team for the Grand Tour, the right leader for the Grand Tour, the right champion for the Grand Tour, ...... We have to build on our objectives. And the decision we have made, which we are very excited about, is to let Egan and Richard go for yellow again.

Team Ineos is always carefully analyzing the race routes and the form of their rivals in each Grand Tour. They saw up close at the Criterium du Dauphiné that Jumbo Visma is stronger than ever, if not stronger than Team Ineos. The battle at the Tour de France will be between Bernal and Primoš Roglic, and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic).

After watching the riders' performances in recent races, Team Ineos realized that it needed to support Bernal if it wanted to defeat Jumbo-Visma and win the Tour de France again.

"Egan went into this race block with a great result. He deserves the position of outright leader of the Tour," Brailsford declared, ending once and for all the talk about leadership and Carapas' trust in supporting Bernal.

"I brought Richard. We brought Richard. Richard's excited about it and we're excited about it. We want to use them both together."

"Of course, we have Pavel, who's going on his first tour, and he's a big, big talent. Obviously we have to take it step by step, but on the other hand we've seen some great performances from him. We want to give him the chance and the experience to be at the forefront of the Tour and the races."

"And we have a pretty strong engine room in the support group. Castro [Jonathan Castroviejo] has done an incredibly good job with this last little block. He knows what it is and delivers," Brailsford explained.

This year's Tour de France will be different in many ways. Froome and Thomas will watch the race from home, while the Spanish-speaking riders take to the roads of France. It is a moment of definite change within the team that Brailsford has been quietly preparing for, even if Thomas and Froome had hoped it would happen in 2021.

In 2013, Brailsford sparked a similar revolution when he sent 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins to the Giro d'Italia to form a Tour de France team around Froome. The Kenyan native returned the favor by winning four Tour de France races and a total of seven Grand Tours.

And now Brailsford has evolved yet again, suggesting a new game plan as well.