{"id":390020,"date":"2025-09-01T19:40:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/390020\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T19:40:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:40:18","slug":"inside-tom-pidcocks-team-of-disruptors-impressing-at-la-vuelta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/390020\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Tom Pidcock\u2019s team of disruptors impressing at La Vuelta"},"content":{"rendered":"

On stage nine of La Vuelta, in the pouring rain, Britain\u2019s Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 managed to out-sprint UAE Team Emirates \u2014 XRG\u2019s Jo\u00e3o Almeida to finish in second place, only 24 seconds down on two-times Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard. More importantly he\u2019d gained over a minute on the likes of Egan Bernal and Giulio Ciccone and moved into podium contention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love about Pidcock and our team is that Tom says, \u2018Don\u2019t tell me in the team meetings that our objective is to not lose time, I don\u2019t want to hear that,\u2019\u201d Doug Ryder, the general manager of Q36.5, told The Times. \u201cWe\u2019re a team that wants to race with energy and with passion and so we want to go and do something every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 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.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Pidcock battles Portugal\u2019s Almeida on his way to second on the ninth stage of La Vuelta<\/p>\n

DARIO BELINGHERI\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

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\u2019t get at the British team that introduced cycling to the world of \u201cmarginal gains\u201d. <\/p>\n

And so he amicably left Ineos, a team with an estimated budget of \u00a350million, and, in January he joined the Swiss Pro Team with an estimated budget of about \u00a320million. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was happy, he was fresh, he had people believe in him,\u201d Ryder says. \u201cHe 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\u2019s really stepped up. He\u2019s got the balls to take on the biggest and best riders in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019t invited to a grand tour. But with the arrival of Pidcock they were invited to two this year, the Giro d\u2019Italia and La Vuelta.<\/p>\n

\"Douglas<\/p>\n

Q36.5, under team manager Ryder and star rider Pidcock, are on the up<\/p>\n

ENNIO LEANZA\/EPA-EFE\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want big riders,\u201d Ryder says. \u201cBig riders bring a lot of media attention and you create a great show.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll bring their own dreams and goals and want to win,\u201d Ryder says. \u201cAnd then they\u2019ll also support Tom in the high mountains when he\u2019s trying to go top five in the Tour de France next year [if the team is invited].<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Wright, we\u2019ve got a strong classics group of riders, but we don\u2019t have someone that has the ability to finish it off. He was eighth in Flanders, ninth in Roubaix and he\u2019s 26. That\u2019s 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as building the team for next year, they already have Ireland\u2019s Rory Townsend, who won at Cyclassics Hamburg, as well as stalwarts such as David de la Cruz and Damien Howson (not to mention Pidcock\u2019s younger brother, Joey, who will line up at the Tour of Britain this week).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 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,\u201d Ryder says. \u201cCycling has become a very functional sport where riders fulfil roles. And if they can\u2019t fulfil the role any more, they\u2019ll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cycling<\/p>\n

Pidcock, right, with his Q36.5 team at La Vuelta<\/p>\n

SPLASH<\/p>\n

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\u2019t have quite the budget of a World Tour super team like UAE Team Emirates (estimated \u00a355million) and Visma-Lease a Bike (estimated \u00a350million). Ryder feels that this disparity is creating a fundamental issue with the UCI\u2019s new point system which was introduced in 2018, forming a promotion and demotion system from the 18-team top tier. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been speaking to the UCI to potentially change the point system to have less riders, because then you\u2019ve got more riders that ride and support and you can bring in younger riders and develop them. But now everybody\u2019s 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\u2019m quite sad about where we are as a sport at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal for 2029 is to try and be in the top 15 ranked teams in the world to secure our slot at the table,\u201d Ryder says. \u201cIf you\u2019re not a part and you don\u2019t have a seat at that table, you don\u2019t eat, and that\u2019s a problem. If you\u2019re not in the grand tours, you really, really struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom\u2019s never done two grand tours in a year and he\u2019s only 26,\u201d Ryder says. \u201cBut that builds a bigger foundation for next year. It is physically a bigger year than he\u2019s ever had. And in there comes the opportunity that the wheels fall off the bus and that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like we know exactly what\u2019s going to happen because otherwise that wouldn\u2019t be fun. I think anything could happen. So that\u2019s why it\u2019s incredibly exciting, to watch and see how this unfolds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On stage nine of La Vuelta, in the pouring rain, Britain\u2019s Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 managed to out-sprint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-390020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115130743325874034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}