{"id":7479,"date":"2025-01-17T12:38:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T11:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=7479"},"modified":"2025-01-20T12:48:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T11:48:38","slug":"no-tour-de-france-this-year-as-pidcock-looks-to-the-future-with-his-new-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/01\/17\/no-tour-de-france-this-year-as-pidcock-looks-to-the-future-with-his-new-team\/","title":{"rendered":"No Tour de France This Year as Pidcock Looks to the Future With His New Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

This has been a busy week for the former INEOS Grenadiers rider Tom Pidcock who has given several media interviews to explain his move to the second-level Q36.5\u00a0team and talk about his plans for the year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

First of all, as anyone following cyclocross will have noticed, the 2022 world champion in that discipline has not been riding \u2018cross this season, in favour of preparing for the road season with his new team. Now, there has been more interesting news from the 25-year-old Briton, whose descent on stage 12 of the 2022 Tour de France and subsequent win on the Alpe d\u2019Huez has become part of Tour legend.<\/p>\n

Pidcock told no less a media outlet than the BBC<\/a> that he would not be riding the Tour this year to focus on some of the biggest one-day races this year. \u201cWe’ll have a year out from the Tour and try to get to the Tour [in] 2026,\u201d he told BBC Sport. \u201cI’m happy I’ve got a year out from it… a break. When I come back, it’ll be with a refreshed energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock will kick off his season with the five-stage AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia on 28 January. Presumably, the team\u2019s strategy will be to amass enough UCI points to be awarded WorldTour status for three years, beginning in 2026. The team currently sits in 25th place on the UCI Team World Rankings table and faces very long odds to become one of the top 18 teams on the list.<\/p>\n

The problem is that with its current status, it cannot pick and choose the races its new star will ride in. As Pidcock himself put it, \u201cWe don’t have full control over the calendar \u2013 [we] have to get invited [to races]. But in theory, we should have all the races that I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the BBC, Pidcock\u2019s signing will help it to get invited to many of this year\u2019s top races. But even if Pidcock has a super year, the team \u2013 which is owned by the Swiss clothing brand Q36.5 \u2013 does not appear to be strong enough to make it to racing\u2019s top tier by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

However, according to what Pidcock told journalists<\/a> at the team\u2019s media day in Spain, the road race strategy is also part of his plans for his cycling future. \u201cAfter the Olympics [in which he won MTB cross-country gold], I said to my girlfriend that I now want to prove myself on the road,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t feel pressure to do it. I\u2019ve won two Olympic gold medals, world titles, and big races on the road, but I\u2019m 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\u2019re obviously harder to win. But I think I should win more on the road and that\u2019s what I want to try and do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That will also help his team get closer to promotion to the big time. Pidcock is certainly among the top five one-day riders in the world but has never struck me as a potential Grand Tour winner \u2013 despite the hopes of his former team. As he put it, \u201dThe big thing with Grand Tours is patience, lasting three weeks, focusing on recovery, and all these things. That\u2019s why perhaps I\u2019m better at one-day races because I can put all my energy into one-dayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock also addressed the reasons for his move from a top but struggling WorldTour team to a second-level team with a smaller budget. \u201cI came to this team because they said, \u2018You\u2019re in your prime years, you need to win as much as possible,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not only about winning. It\u2019s about the story you write, who you write it with, what you achieve, your own satisfaction\u2026 and, here, I can gain more satisfaction than anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pidcock also said that for him, it was love at first sight. \u201cFrom the first meeting [with Q36.5], I decided I was coming here,\u201d he explained. \u201cMy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he hasn\u2019t given up on at least a Grand Tour podium this year if Q.36.5 receives invitations for the Giro d\u2019Italia and\/or the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/a> \u201cTwo Grand Tours would not be a bad thing for me to do,\u201d he said and added that he might perform better this year than he had previously with INEOS. His best placing in three Grand Tour rides was a 13th place at the 2023 Tour. \u201cA lot of things have changed: training, performance and everything behind me,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m in a much stronger place. I have a lot of confidence in how we\u2019re working now, and I think I will be a better version of myself this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for why it ended the way it did with INEOS, after four more or less good years in Spain, he said<\/a>, \u201cTo be perfectly honest, I\u2019m struggling to give an answer to that question because I\u2019ve actually moved on. That team was my second family. I have great memories there, but it was time to change, and I accepted that a long time ago. That\u2019s not a scripted answer \u2013 I\u2019m just very good at putting things behind me and moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then he did find some partial answer to the question, saying: \u201cI think things were just not going how it was originally envisaged at INEOS, how I imagined it, and the mutual solution to end the contract was the best. There wasn\u2019t a specific moment, it was gradual. It was going on for a while and it was no secret that last year was difficult for me, and also for INEOS, I guess. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This has been a busy week for the former INEOS Grenadiers rider Tom Pidcock who has given several media interviews […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":7507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-7479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"\nTom Pidcock Looks to the Future With His New Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/01\/17\/no-tour-de-france-this-year-as-pidcock-looks-to-the-future-with-his-new-team\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No Tour de France This Year as Pidcock Looks to the Future With His New Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This has been a busy week for the former INEOS Grenadiers rider Tom Pidcock who has given several media interviews […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/01\/17\/no-tour-de-france-this-year-as-pidcock-looks-to-the-future-with-his-new-team\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - 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