Roger Hammond joins Ineos Grenadiers as lead sport director from Bahrain Victorious

Roger Hammond, the former British professional who has worked with a number of WorldTour teams as a DS in the past few seasons, has joined Ineos Grenadiers.

The 47-year-old has been appointed as the team's lead sport director for the 2021 season as Ineos attempt to regain their title as the sport's most commanding team and return to winning the Tour de France.

Hammond has been considering the offer to join Ineos for a period of time after working with Bahrain Victorious in the past 12 months.

Before then, he was a DS with Team Dimension Data between 2016 and 2018, where he was credited with playing a pivotal role in Mark Cavendish's four stage wins at the 2016 Tour. He has also worked as a team manager with the now-defunct British Continental team Madison-Genesis for a period of five years.

"I am very excited to be joining the Ineos Grenadiers," Hammond told his new employer's website.

"It is a great opportunity to be part of charting the next chapter for the team and I can’t wait to get started. 

"The team is very open to change and to find new ways to innovate and improve. That is incredibly motivating and I hope I can play my part in developing an ever more integrated performance model that can help bring future success."

The team's deputy team principal Rod Ellingworth, who had hired Hammond to work at Bahrain-Victorious before himself switching to Ineos last autumn, commented: “Roger brings significant cycling experience and deep-rooted knowledge of the sport which will be invaluable as our lead sport director."

Under Hammond's tutelage in the 2020 season, Bahrain-Victorious were the sixth most winningest team in the men's peloton, scoring victories with 11 different riders and in 16 WorldTour races.

Many of the successes would not have been tipped at the turn of the year, most notably Damiano Caruso's second place on GC at the Giro d'Italia and Sonny Colbrelli's incredible season that climaxed with an epic win at Paris-Roubaix.

Elsewhere, Ben Williams has been recruited from the Ineos Sport Group to work as a performance coach with the WorldTour team.

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A former soldier and most recently head of human performance at Ineos, Williams will continue to work with Ineos' sailing team but will be seen as part of Tim Kerrison's replacement. Coach Kerrison is leaving the Ineos set-up after 12 years.

On Williams' appointment, Ellingworth said: "Ben brings a fresh perspective and we are keen for him to take a bit of time to stand back and observe how the team works before recommending how we can better integrate the different performance elements that are critical for future success."

The make-up of Ineos' backroom staff continues to change, with rumours suggesting that team principal David Brailsford will relinquish some duties to focus on a more senior role with Ineos Sport Group.