Tom Pidcock wants to reset the narrative. Yes, Q36.5 is a team with a lower budget and in a lower division than Ineos Grenadiers, the WorldTour team he left this winter after four years, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see him winning the biggest bike races anymore. In fact, he’s made a pact with himself: he has to win more races on the road.
“After the Olympics, I said to my girlfriend that I now want to prove myself on the road,” the Yorkshireman says, speaking at his new team’s annual media day in Calpe, Spain. “I don’t feel pressure to do it. I’ve won two Olympic gold medals, world titles, and big races on the road, but I’m not really the person who is very good at winning smaller races. I put all my eggs in the basket for big races and they’re obviously harder to win. But I think I should win more on the road and that’s what I want to try and do.
“A lot of people have been questioning why I came to this team because they said now you’re in your prime years you need to win as much as possible, but it’s not only about winning. It’s about the story you write, who you write it with, what you achieve, your own satisfaction… and, here, I can gain more satisfaction than anywhere else.”
“From my heart, from the first meeting [he had with Q36.5], I decided I was coming here,” he goes on. “My head was debating for a long time, but the thing about here is the belief in me, that shared vision of success and freedom and being able to race my bike. It was 100% the right decision. People in this team are the smartest people in their field I’ve ever worked in. It’s a lower division team, but it doesn’t mean it’s sub-par to other teams.”
Image by Georg Lindacher
Having freed himself from the shackles of Ineos and the problems he was experiencing – “I signed my contract with different people who run the team now and that did create some difficulties. [It was different] from what I imagined it was going to be like to what happened,” he says – the 25-year-old appears to be in better spirits than he has been for quite some time.
Pidcock is one of those riders who everyone has an opinion on. He insists that he hasn’t seen or heard anyone else's thoughts on his transfer, schedule or ambitions, but there’s a perpetual debate ongoing among the sport’s followers: should he focus on pursuing a multi-discipline calendar, or should he sacrifice everything in a bid to top a Grand Tour’s general classification? His own musings are becoming more crystallised. “The races I aspire to win at the moment,” he says, emphasising that specific current time frame, “are the one-day races. That’s my focus at the start of the year.” After making his bow for his new team at the Alula Tour, he’ll then, invites-permitting, be at the Italian, Flemish and Ardennes Classics.
Beyond that, though, Pidcock is not parking his ambitions in three-week races. “For me, I have to first imagine myself being able to do something,” he says. “Everything I’ve achieved so far, I’ve first envisioned myself doing it. I haven’t envisioned myself winning a Grand Tour yet, but I think I can get a podium.” Though Q36.5 will not be at the Tour de France – “I feel happy having a year out and to come back with fresh motivation for that race,” Pidcock says – they are cautiously optimistic that they’ll receive a wildcard entry to the Giro d’Italia, and are not giving up on being selected for the Vuelta a España either. “Two Grand Tours would not be a bad thing for me to do,” Pidcock says. Could he aim for a podium this year? “I don’t know. A lot of things have changed: training, performance and everything behind me. But I’m in a much stronger place. I have a lot of confidence in how we’re working now and I think I will be a better version of myself this year.”
Image by James Startt
He looks back on the 2022 Tour de France and his victory on Alpe d’Huez with a smile, and also as a moment when he realised what it would take to rival the likes of Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. “I got into the race, I was performing on the climbs and I thought I knew where my level was, what I can do, but then to put it into a place is another thing. The big thing with Grand Tours is patience, lasting three weeks, focusing on recovery, and all these things. That’s why perhaps I’m better at one-day races because I can put all my energy into one-dayers.”
As he enters the supposed peak years of his career, he’s eager to add to his road win tally of just five professional races. “I think 2025 will be very easy to be a success because everything is an upside,” he predicts. “Of course, I’ve signed up for a challenge. We have something to build, and whatever we build is more than what we started, so success will come quite easily. How much, I don’t know, but the staff is as good as anyone I’ve ever worked with and some better. Being able to come out of this year growing, winning hopefully, that will be a success. A lot of times I’ve gone into races where it’s been everything to lose and then I can only meet expectations, so this is a nice, refreshing place to be.”
