But in 2026, I am going to root for Uno-X Mobility, the all-Scandinavian team that rode their way to WorldTour status in 2025, and Q36.5, who are gearing up to do the same over the coming three years, when they will race as Pinarello–Q.36 Pro Cycling.
A game-changing rider
Q36.5 was founded in 2023 by the owners of the Italian cycling clothing brand Q36.5, Luigi Bergamo and Ivan Glasenberg, together with team general manager Doug Ryder, and it has come a long way in a short time. It made a game-changing move when it signed Tom Pidcock for 2025–27, and he has been everything they had hoped for when they signed him. He and the team reached the pinnacle of their collaboration when the Brit finished third in this year’s Vuelta a España, making Q36.5 only the third wild-card team to land a rider on a Grand Tour podium in 25 years. That it was achieved in the team’s only second participation in a Grand Tour race made it all the more remarkable.
Ryder called that success “surreal” and added: “This achievement by Tom has lifted the entire team. With the right people, the right environment and the right culture, you can attract the best of the best, on and off the bike. That makes me very proud of this team and everyone involved.”
But, of course, Q36.5 will not be content with this success for long because they would love to eliminate the need for a wild-card invitation to participate in the biggest races in the sport. It’s likely that the Vuelta success will lead to more Grand Tour wild-card invitations in the future, but the team wants to be part of the sport’s elite and has already taken steps to begin their battle for WorldTour promotion on the front foot.
Among the 10 riders the team picked up in this year’s transfer market are Fred Wright (from Bahrain-Victorious), Eddie Dunbar and Chris Harper (both from Jayco-AlUla), and Quinten Hermans and Xandro Meurisse (both from Alpecin–Deceuninck). That’s quite a haul. Wright is only 26 and is a talented rider who has never really fulfilled his potential as a Grand Tour rider, coming close to a stage win on numerous occasions. Dunbar and Harper, aged 29 and 30, are strong climbers who could be used as mountain domestiques for Pidcock and/or for stage wins in Grand Tours and lesser races. Hermans is a solid puncheur and potential domestique, while Meurisse is a 33-year-old veteran with experience in Grand Tours and Classics.
Points, points, points
As important as Pidcock’s Vuelta podium finish was for Q36.5 – and they will certainly look for more Grand Tour breakthroughs in 2026 – the team’s main objective over the next three years is to garner enough points to finish in the top 18 of the UCI Technical Rankings at the end of 2028. At the end of this past three-year period – which covered the first three years of its existence – Q36.5 finished in 24th place, more than 9,000 points behind the 18th-place team, the soon-to-be-defunct Intermarché-Wanty. The team also finished well behind its likely main rival for promotion, Tudor Pro, which has Julian Alaphilippe, Marc Hirschi, Michael Storer and Stefan Küng in the squad. So it won’t be easy.
The good news is that Q36.5 had an excellent 2025 points-wise with Pidcock, collecting more than 8,000 points, more than the team had won in its first two years of existence. Pidcock picked up nearly half of those points. The 26-year-old Leeds native will be essential to the team’s promotion drive and can still improve. More important is the fact that he will now have able support in the mountains. This season, Pidcock was often on his own when the road rose steeply and was forced to react to the moves of his rivals. With the likes of Wright, Dunbar and Harper riding for him, he will have the luxury of being able to attack on climbs and have teammates control breakaways.
With all the ink spilt about how Remco Evenepoel’s Grand Tour chances against Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard will improve with Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe, I think it’s time to factor Pidcock into the Tour de France podium competition for next year. Just think about watching a race in which Pogačar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and Pidcock are all competing for the podium. I can’t wait.
