News: Ben Tulett Signs for Ineos

Double world junior cyclo-cross champion and a rider already making his mark in the world tour, has signed for Ineos to Join the likes of Tom Pidcock and Ethan Hayter

News: Ben Tulett Signs for Ineos

The INEOS Grenadiers can confirm the signing of the latest young British star to make their mark in the peloton, Ben Tulett. Tulett, who turned 20 last week, has spent two impressive seasons racing on the road for Alpecin-Fenix, having graduated straight from the juniors into the professional road ranks.

He will join a growing crop of young stars at the Grenadiers, including fellow Brits Tom Pidcock and Ethan Hayter. A two-time junior cyclocross world champion, Tulett finished ninth overall at the recent Tour de Pologne and 12th at Flèche Wallonne in April, and will join the team he has long dreamt of racing for from the start of 2022 – having ‘earned his seat on the bus’.

“It’s been the team I’ve always looked up to,” said Tulett. “I still remember reading Cycling Weekly when I was younger, looking at the photos of the team being launched. It was the first time there was this big British team going into the WorldTour and I remember being so excited about it. Then Brad won the Tour in 2012 and that was just incredible. I remember thinking, ‘I’d love to be on that team one day’. Fast forward nine years and I’ve just signed my first contract here. I couldn’t be happier.”

“I remember visiting the Vuelta in 2017 as a fan and seeing Chris Froome and the whole team, thinking, one day… I want my seat on that bus. It’s honestly been in my head during some training efforts – I want to earn my seat on that bus.”

INEOS Grenadiers Director of Racing Rod Ellingworth said: “Ben is a young British rider who we’ve been watching for a while. He has made impressive progress over the last year and his approach and attitude is exactly what we look for in an INEOS Grenadier. We think his passion for racing combined with our team environment will help push him on to the next stage of his career.”

Tulett instantly impressed on the road with Alpecin-Fenix, finishing fifth in his first race, the Tour of Antalya. This season his rides in Flèche Wallonne and Tour de Pologne have been further proof of his progression. “Racing with the pros from a young age is like climbing a ladder – you don’t start at the top! The competition is so high. Each year, each race, I’ve been consistently improving. At the Tour de Pologne I earned my first top 10 on GC there. I was really happy with that, and seventh on the queen stage. I’m trying to consistently improve.

“Flèche was awesome. I knew I was there in good condition and I really wanted to prove what I was able to do, and to finish it off with such big names all around me was quite special – really surreal.”

Tulett comes from a cycling family, and some of his earliest memories are of watching his Dad, Allister, race cyclocross. He took part in his first race ‘aged three or four’, wearing a baggy jersey from his Dad’s team, Arctic, and now he’s looking forward to racing on the road with Hayter and Pidcock, 15 years later.

“Tom is two years older than me, so when we were in the development categories he was always a category or two above me. But we’ve spent a lot of time together and know each other pretty well. Ethan grew up not so far away from me so I know him well and I’ve known Tao [Geoghegan Hart] for a number of years as well. I’ve had a couple of chats with Luke Rowe briefly in the races and he seems like a really cool guy. I can’t wait to meet the whole team and get to know everybody properly.”

“It’s my dream to be a GC rider, of course. Obviously INEOS can give me the tools to do that, in the very best environment. It will be really important to settle into the team, invest in what INEOS is all about and continue developing on the bike and progress the results I’ve already had.”