When it was announced in late March that cycling’s three Grand Tours would have an extra team this season, taking the number from 22 up to 23, it prompted derision and disagreement from many. Why do the races need an extra team, an extra eight riders? Won’t it make riding conditions more dangerous, at a time when the sport should be trying to improve safety?

At the Giro d’Italia, the team who profited were Q36.5. They didn’t really do anything. Tom Pidcock pre-faced his Giro debut by saying he was going for stage wins, but privately he was targeting the GC. He finished 16th. At the Tour de France, Tudor Pro Cycling were the 23rd team, and they too didn’t really make a significant mark on the race – though Julian Alaphilippe did think he’d won a stage he actually finished third in.

A few months later at the Vuelta a España, and Q36.5 once again benefited from the extra wildcard spot. In Spain it prompted fury, as it denied Kern Pharma, winner of three stages last year, a chance to return to the race. Spain has four second division teams and each year rotates who it hands wildcard places to. This year it was Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and Burgos Burpellet BH, meaning Kern Pharma missed out. Their disappointment was understandable. 

No one can say, however, that the 23rd team, Q36.5, have not earned their pick. Though there was no podium ceremony in Madrid after the final stage was suspended due to the mass pro-Palestine protests against the presence of Israel-Premier Tech in the race, Tom Pidcock finished the race in third place, behind winner Jonas Vingegaard and second-placed João Almeida. Third for a second-tier team only in operation for three years. Third for Pidcock who left WorldTour giants Ineos Grenadiers last winter and demoted himself to what was, in the words of Q36.5’s manager Doug Ryder, a “start-up” team. 

Pidcock performed in the high mountains of the Vuelta, taming the steepest gradients. Image: Zac Williams/SWPix.com.

Pidcock’s performances in the past three weeks have further highlighted his all-round, multi-discipline talents. Yes, he’s also a mountain biker – the best in the world at it, if his Olympic golds are the barometer. He’s also a cyclocross rider – a former world champion. He’s a one-day race winner, too – he’s claimed victories at Strade Bianche and Amstel Gold. And now he’s a Grand Tour GC rider. A rider capable of performing for three weeks, on the flat days, up mountains, in time trials. Very, very few athletes have his skillset, and even few boast such varied palmarès. “It’s the biggest performance of my career,” he said after stage 20. It’s hard to disagree. 

In quotes collected by Cyclingnews at the start of stage 21, Pidcock expanded on the success of the past few weeks. “There’s been so much talk about what I can do in Grand Tours and expectation, not really coming from myself to be honest, more from other people. This is a big deal – I’ve shown that I can perform. Before, I didn’t enjoy Grand Tours. They were not so much fun. So it is definitely something that has changed that perspective and shows me I can achieve what people closest to me believe I am and my team believes I can. It’s a relief almost – a weight off my shoulders.”

Harder tests await, of course. Finishing third in the Tour de France, for instance, is a far tougher prospect. It has to be acknowledged, too, that the overall level of the GC competition at the Vuelta this year has been lower than at the Tour or even the Giro d’Italia. Look back through the recent history of the Vuelta and some who have finished third – Hugh Carthy in 2020 and Jack Haig in 2021, for example – have failed to kick on and develop their GC careers. Pidcock’s result isn’t a guarantee of future success. 

He knows that – “I’m a way off winning,” he acknowledged, referencing his deficit of 3:11 to Vingegaard – but with respect to Carthy and Haig, Pidcock is blessed with more talent, and he also has a team utterly devoted to serving his ambitions. The Vuelta has proven to be an enormous success for Pidcock, and also to Q36.5. It has also proven that adding an extra team wasn’t a bad idea after all. “And to be a guest team,” Pidcock pointed out, “the 23rd team in the race… it’s a big deal for sure.”

Cover image by: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images