On stage nine of La Vuelta, in the pouring rain, Britain’s Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 managed to out-sprint UAE Team Emirates — XRG’s João Almeida to finish in second place, only 24 seconds down on two-times Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard. More importantly he’d gained over a minute on the likes of Egan Bernal and Giulio Ciccone and moved into podium contention.
“What I love about Pidcock and our team is that Tom says, ‘Don’t tell me in the team meetings that our objective is to not lose time, I don’t want to hear that,’” Doug Ryder, the general manager of Q36.5, told The Times. “We’re a team that wants to race with energy and with passion and so we want to go and do something every day.
“When Tom feels good and the guys are on it, even as a [second-division] Pro Team we take on the big boys and Tom ended up duking it out with the big dogs and showing whatever happens in this grand tour that he absolutely is a rider who can be a big contender.”
Pidcock battles Portugal’s Almeida on his way to second on the ninth stage of La Vuelta
DARIO BELINGHERI/GETTY IMAGES
Perhaps it just took changing teams for the man from Leeds to unlock his potential. In 2024 Pidcock announced he was leaving the World Tour juggernaut, Ineos Grenadiers, for the underdog team Q36.5. It was no surprise. Relationships between Pidcock and Ineos had begun to sour between 2023 and 2024 and Pidcock is a rider that thrives on freedom, a freedom he couldn’t get at the British team that introduced cycling to the world of “marginal gains”.
And so he amicably left Ineos, a team with an estimated budget of £50million, and, in January he joined the Swiss Pro Team with an estimated budget of about £20million. But the impact was immediate. Pidcock won two stages and the overall at the AlUla Tour (formerly known as the Saudi Tour), a stage of the Ruta Del Sol and took a second place behind Tadej Pogacar at his beloved Strade Bianche.
“He was happy, he was fresh, he had people believe in him,” Ryder says. “He could be himself, all the things that he felt he were missing. So he has the freedom, he has the support, he has the leadership opportunity and he’s really stepped up. He’s got the balls to take on the biggest and best riders in the world.”
For a team like Q36.5, signing a rider with the star power of Pidcock was essential to being invited to a seat at the World Tour table. In the previous two years Q36.5 weren’t invited to a grand tour. But with the arrival of Pidcock they were invited to two this year, the Giro d’Italia and La Vuelta.
Q36.5, under team manager Ryder and star rider Pidcock, are on the up
ENNIO LEANZA/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
“People want big riders,” Ryder says. “Big riders bring a lot of media attention and you create a great show.”
In recent weeks the team have gone on a spending spree, bolstering their ranks for 2026. Ryder believes that Pidcock has made the team an exciting proposition for other riders such as Britain’s Fred Wright, who will join from Bahrain Victorious to strengthen the classics season, and Chris Harper and Eddie Dunbar from Jayco AlUla to support Pidcock in the mountains.
“They’ll bring their own dreams and goals and want to win,” Ryder says. “And then they’ll also support Tom in the high mountains when he’s trying to go top five in the Tour de France next year [if the team is invited].
“With Wright, we’ve got a strong classics group of riders, but we don’t have someone that has the ability to finish it off. He was eighth in Flanders, ninth in Roubaix and he’s 26. That’s incredible. There are very few riders that are up-and-coming and solid in the classics and so we wanted someone that could take a leadership role in that space. We want to support him to see where he can go. Can he win Flanders? Can he win Roubaix?”
As well as building the team for next year, they already have Ireland’s Rory Townsend, who won at Cyclassics Hamburg, as well as stalwarts such as David de la Cruz and Damien Howson (not to mention Pidcock’s younger brother, Joey, who will line up at the Tour of Britain this week).
“We’re a team that has strong leadership, but we also want riders to get the maximum out of it so that they can leave a legacy,” Ryder says. “Cycling has become a very functional sport where riders fulfil roles. And if they can’t fulfil the role any more, they’ll be replaced by someone who can. We look at things totally differently. We look at what the rider wants to achieve and ask, what is their dream goal? How do they want to be remembered? And we try and enable that.”
Pidcock, right, with his Q36.5 team at La Vuelta
SPLASH
Even if Q36.5 has a billionaire owner in Ivan Glasenberg and solid financial base in their title sponsor, the Italian clothing brand, as well as UBS, it doesn’t have quite the budget of a World Tour super team like UAE Team Emirates (estimated £55million) and Visma-Lease a Bike (estimated £50million). Ryder feels that this disparity is creating a fundamental issue with the UCI’s new point system which was introduced in 2018, forming a promotion and demotion system from the 18-team top tier.
Whereas points used to be taken from the top ten riders of each squad, in the 2024-25 cycle it has been the top 20, creating the main imbalance Pro Teams face, as Ryder sees it.
“I’ve been speaking to the UCI to potentially change the point system to have less riders, because then you’ve got more riders that ride and support and you can bring in younger riders and develop them. But now everybody’s buying 20 of the best that they can so that they can get the maximum points. And that hurts the growth of the sport. I’m quite sad about where we are as a sport at the moment.”
As it stands, Q36.5 will not be promoted at the end of 2025, meaning they will continue to require invites to grand tours and other WT-ranked races. A wild card can be obtained through performances in other races and also lobbying. A team like Q36.5 need to show the value they can bring in terms of race promotion and what star power they have.
And the grand tours are important for the survival of a Pro Team, as it offers the maximum chance for points-scoring and eventual promotion.
“The goal for 2029 is to try and be in the top 15 ranked teams in the world to secure our slot at the table,” Ryder says. “If you’re not a part and you don’t have a seat at that table, you don’t eat, and that’s a problem. If you’re not in the grand tours, you really, really struggle.”
Q36.5 have been to two grand tours and while an unprepared Pidcock only managed 16th at the Giro he has looked in much better form so far this Vuelta, meaning more valuable points towards that seat at the table.
“Tom’s never done two grand tours in a year and he’s only 26,” Ryder says. “But that builds a bigger foundation for next year. It is physically a bigger year than he’s ever had. And in there comes the opportunity that the wheels fall off the bus and that’s OK.
“It’s not like we know exactly what’s going to happen because otherwise that wouldn’t be fun. I think anything could happen. So that’s why it’s incredibly exciting, to watch and see how this unfolds.”